Surrogacy families: parental functioning, parent-child relationships and children's psychological development at age 2.
BACKGROUND
Findings are presented of the second phase of a longitudinal study of families created through surrogacy.


METHODS
At the time of the child's 2nd birthday, 37 surrogacy families were compared with 48 egg donation families and 68 natural conception families on standardised interview and questionnaire measures of the psychological well-being of the parents, parent-child relationships and the psychological functioning of the child.


RESULTS
The surrogacy mothers showed more positive parent-child relationships, and the surrogacy fathers reported lower levels of parenting stress, than their natural conception counterparts. The surrogacy children did not differ from the natural conception children with respect to socio-emotional or cognitive development.


CONCLUSIONS
Surrogacy does not appear to impact negatively on parenting or child development in families with 2-year-old children.
Golombok
Susan
S
Family and Child Psychology Research Centre, City University, Northampton Square, London EC1V 0HB, UK. S.E.Golombok@city.ac.uk
MacCallum
Fiona
F
Murray
Clare
C
Lycett
Emma
E
Jadva
Vasanti
V
D000786:Anger; D001007:Anxiety / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D005220:Fathers / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D018730:Infant Behavior; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage / Q000523:psychology; D018587:Oocyte Donation / Q000523:psychology; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology; D010552:Personality Assessment; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications; D013533:Gestational Carriers / Q000523:psychology*