Why do children want to know more about the donor? The experience of youngsters raised in lesbian families.
In this study, we focus on the donor origin of youngster who are raised in lesbian donor insemination (DI) families. The aim was to explore why some of these DI children like to know more about the donor while others do not, these data were gathered by means of a semi-structured interview. Secondly, we investigated, by means of several questionnaires, whether psychological variables such as global self-esteem, emotional and behavioral adjustment and children's perception of the quality of the parent-child relationship were in some way linked to whether or not they wanted to know more about the donor. In our study the majority of the children who preferred to have no information about the donor expressed their loyalty towards the social mother. For the majority of the children who opted for donor information, curiosity was the most salient motive. No differences were found with regard to the psychological variables between the two groups considered. In conclusion, the wish to know more about the donor or the absence of such a need is not reflected in the child's well-being and is not linked to the quality of the parent-child interaction.
Vanfraussen
K
K
Department of Developmental and Life Span Psychology, Vrije Universiteit of Brussel (VUB), 1050 Brussels, Belgium. Katrien.Vanfraussen@vub.ac.be
Ponjaert-Kristoffersen
I
I
Brewaeys
A
A
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D001530:Belgium; D002648:Child; D030881:Disclosure; D005260:Female; D018452:Homosexuality, Female; D006801:Humans; D007315:Insemination, Artificial / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D002666:Psychology, Child; D012649:Self Concept