Marital break-up among couples raising families by artificial insemination by donor.
The separation rate for Norwegian women who had given birth to children after artificial insemination by donor (AID, n = 227) was compared with the separation rate among all Norwegian women that met certain demographic criteria for equality (controls, n = 6,689). The criteria included identical year of maternal birth, similar age at marriage, and equally long period between marriage and birth of the first child. Mean duration of marriage at first delivery was 7.4 years, and mean age of the first child was 3.6 years at registration of the data. The incidence of marital break-up in the AID group was 1.8%, as compared with 3.0% to 3.7% in the control group. The difference is not significant (P approximately 0.15). The authors conclude that the separation rate in AID families does not differ significantly from the observed separation rate in a demographically matched population. The study highlights the importance of selecting a proper control group before statements of the magnitude of separations in AID families are made.
Bendvold
E
E
National Hospital, Oslo, Norway.
Skjaeraasen
J
J
Moe
N
N
Sjøberg
D
D
Kravdal
O
O
D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D003710:Demography; D004243:Divorce / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007256:Information Systems; D007315:Insemination, Artificial; D007316:Insemination, Artificial, Heterologous; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009664:Norway; D011336:Probability