FAMILIES CREATED THROUGH EGG DONATION: PARENTAL PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH IN EARLY CHILDHOOD

Abstract

This study examined mothers’ and fathers’ psychological health in families who had conceived a child using egg donation (ED). Data are reported from phase two of a longitudinal study, when children were aged five. Cross-sectional design using standardized questionnaires. Questionnaire data were obtained from 66 families who had a child through egg donation, and a comparison group of 46 families who had a child through IVF with own-gametes. The average ages of mothers were 47.06 years (ED) and 42.24 years (IVF); fathers’ average ages were 48.08 years (ED) and 45.11 years (IVF). Questionnaires assessing parental psychological health (Trait Anxiety Index, Edinburgh Depression Scale), stress associated with parenting (Parenting Stress Index), marital quality (Golombok Rust Inventory of Marital State), social support (Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support) and resilience (Brief Resilience Scale) were completed by mothers and fathers. Independent-samples t-tests and Mann-Whitney U-tests were used to analyse the data. Preliminary results found that mothers and fathers in both groups scored within the normal range for all questionnaire measures of psychological health. No significant differences were found between ED and IVF mothers in reported levels of anxiety, depression or resilience. ED mothers reported significantly lower couple relationship quality than IVF mothers (t(93) = 2.97, p=.004). However, when mother’s age was controlled for, the test was no longer significant. ED mothers reported significantly higher parenting stress than IVF mothers (U= 1070.5, p=.02) and significantly lower levels of perceived social support than IVF mothers (U= 1037, p=.007). No significant differences were found between ED and IVF fathers in reported levels of couple relationship quality, perceived social support or resilience. ED fathers reported significantly higher levels of parenting stress (U= 766.5, p=.01), anxiety (t(88.95)= 2.45, p=.016) and depression (U= 798.5, p=.03) than IVF fathers. However, group differences in depression were no longer significant after controlling for father’s age. Egg donation parents appear to be functioning within the normal range with regards to parental psychological health. However, egg donation mothers reported lower couple relationship quality, higher parenting stress and lower social support, and egg donation fathers experienced greater parenting stress, anxiety and depression, relative to their IVF counterparts. It is notable that ED mothers’ lower couple relationship quality and ED fathers’ higher levels of depression appear to be related to the older age of egg donation parents, rather than their use of egg donation per se. Possible explanations for the differences in psychological health between the ED and IVF parents will be discussed.