Families created by gamete donation: follow-up at age 2.
BACKGROUND
Findings are presented of the second phase of a longitudinal study of families created through gamete donation.


METHODS
At the time of the child's second birthday, 46 donor insemination families and 48 egg donation families were compared with 68 natural conception families on standardized interview and questionnaire measures of the psychological well being of the parents, parent-child relationships and the psychological development of the child.


RESULTS
The gamete donation mothers showed a trend towards greater pleasure in their child accompanied by a perception of their child as more vulnerable, with egg donation mothers tending towards greater pleasure and donor insemination mothers tending towards greater concern. The fathers did not differ on any of the variables under study.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings from this recent cohort add further weight to the growing body of research showing that the absence of a genetic link between a parent and a child does not necessarily jeopardize the development of a positive relationship between them.
Golombok
S
S
Family and Child Psychology Research Centre, City University, Northampton Square, London EC1V 0HB, UK. S.E.Golombok@city.ac.uk
Jadva
V
V
Lycett
E
E
Murray
C
C
Maccallum
F
F
D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007316:Insemination, Artificial, Heterologous / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D018587:Oocyte Donation / Q000523:psychology*; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology; D013094:Spermatozoa; D014019:Tissue Donors / Q000523:psychology*