A landmark study by the University of Cambridge finds no difference in psychological well-being or quality of family relationships between children born by assisted reproduction (egg or sperm donation or surrogacy) and those born naturally at age 20
But findings suggest that telling children about their biological origins early can lead to healthy family relationships.
The study is the first to examine the long-term effects of different types of third-party assisted reproduction on parenting and child adjustment, as well as the first to investigate prospectively the effect of the age at which children were told that they were conceived by egg donation, sperm donation, or surrogacy.
The results were published in Developmental Psychology and suggests that the absence of a biological connection between children and parents in assisted reproduction families does not interfere with the development of positive relationships between them or psychological adjustment in adulthood. These findings are consistent with previous assessments at ages one, two, three, seven, ten, and 14.
The findings overturn previous widely held assumptions that children born by third-party assisted reproduction are at a disadvantage when it comes to well-being and family relationships because they lack a biological connection to their parents.
Susan Golombok, Professor Emerita of Family Research and former Director of the Centre for Family Research, University of Cambridge, who led the study, said: “Despite people’s concerns, families with children born through third-party assisted reproduction – whether that be an egg donor, sperm donor or a surrogate – are doing well right up to adulthood.”
However, they found that mothers who began to tell their children about their biological origins in their preschool years had more positive relationships with them as assessed by the interview at age 20, and the mothers showed lower levels of anxiety and depression.
Most of the parents who had disclosed did so by age four and found that the child took the news well. This suggests that being open with children about their origins when they are young is advantageous.
In addition, in the final stage of this 20-year study, mothers who had disclosed their child’s origins by seven years old obtained slightly more positive scores on questionnaire measures of quality of family relationships, parental acceptance (mother’s feelings towards young adults), and family communication. For example, only seven per cent of mothers who had disclosed by age seven reported problems in family relationships, compared with 22 per cent of those who disclosed after seven.
Professor Golmobok said: “There does seem to be a positive effect of being open with children when they’re young – before they go to school – about their conception. It’s something that’s been shown by studies of adoptive families too.”
Researchers from the University of Cambridge followed 65 UK families with children born by assisted reproduction – 22 by surrogacy, 17 by egg donation, and 26 by sperm donation – from infancy through to early adulthood (20 years old). They compared these families with 52 UK unassisted conception families over the same period.
“The assisted reproduction families were functioning well, but where we did see differences, these were slightly more positive for families who had disclosed,” said Golombok.
Researchers found that egg-donation mothers reported fewer positive family relationships than sperm-donation mothers. They suggest that this could be due to some mothers’ insecurities about the absence of a genetic connection to their children. This was not reflected in the young adults’ perceptions of the quality of family relationships.
The team also found that young adults conceived by sperm donation reported poorer family communication than those conceived by egg donation. This could be explained by the greater secrecy around sperm donation than egg donation, sometimes driven by the greater reluctance of fathers than mothers to disclose to their child that they are not their genetic parent, and a greater reluctance to talk about it once they have disclosed.
In fact, researchers found that only 42 per cent of sperm donor parents disclosed by age 20, compared to 88 per cent of egg donation parents and 100 per cent of surrogate parents.
“Today there are so many more families created by assisted reproduction that it just seems quite ordinary,” said Golombok.
“But 20 years ago, when we started this study, attitudes were very different. It was thought that having a genetic link was very important and without one, relationships wouldn’t work well.
“What this research means is that having children in different or new ways doesn’t actually interfere with how families function. Really wanting children seems to trump everything – that’s what really matters.”
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