Welbevinden van homoseksuele vaders met een kind via draagmoederschap1

Abstract

Abstract Wellbeing of gay fathers with children born through surrogacy A study of parental wellbeing in the U.K., France, and the Netherlands compared parents in 38 gay father families, 61 lesbian mother families, and 42 heterosexual parent families. In all family types, the parents had just become parents for the first time and had an infant aged around 4 months. The infants in the gay father families were born through surrogacy, and those in the lesbian mother families were conceived after insemination with donor sperm. The heterosexual parent families had used in vitro fertilization without sperm or egg donation. Standardized measures of parental wellbeing (parental stress, psychological adjustment, and partner relationship satisfaction) were used to collect data via a password-protected online survey. Both parents in all families completed the survey. The parents’ scores on the studied variables were similar regardless of family type or caregiver role. The findings of the present study contribute to the theoretical understanding of the role of family type and caregiver role in families whose first child was conceived by means of assisted reproductive technologies, and especially our knowledge of gay fathers who became parents through surrogacy.