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This holds true whether the donor is known to the child or not, the researchers say.
Lesbian parents’ offspring who were conceived through sperm donation are just as well-adjusted psychologically as anyone else, and that holds true regardless of whether the donor is known to them, a new study says.
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The findings are important at a time when the LGBTQ+ community is under attack in the United States, say the researchers, who come from the U.S., Italy, and the Netherlands.
The study, “The Psychological Adjustment of Donor-Conceived Offspring of Lesbian Parents Over Two Decades: Differences by Donor Type and Contact With the Donor,” was published in Reproductive BioMedicine Online. The researchers looked at data from the U.S. National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study, which included 70 donor-conceived offspring assessed at ages 10, 17, 25, and 30-33.
The lesbian family study, initiated in 1986, “represents a unique opportunity to examine whether and to what extent donor type and contact with the donor influence the psychological adjustment of the first generation of DI-conceived offspring of lesbian parents during established adulthood,” the researchers explain.
Of the 70 offspring in the longitudinal study, 34.29 percent had an anonymous donor, 34.29 percent a known donor, and 31.43 percent an open-identity donor. With an open-identity donor, “the donor’s identifying information is accessible to offspring once they reach a certain age,” 18 in most countries, according to the researchers.
“Most previous cross-sectional research during childhood and adolescence found no significant differences between donor-conceived offspring raised in lesbian-parent families and their counterparts raised in heterosexual two-parent families concerning problem behavior, well-being, and emotion regulation,” they note. But “very little is known about the psychological adjustment of donor-conceived adult offspring of lesbian parents,” they add. Also, previous studies did not look at the effect of the type of donor and whether the offspring had contact with them.
Across the sample, more than 80 percent “consistently scored within the normal range across all stages” when it comes to problem behavior, and none continuously scored in the deviant range, the new report says. There were no differences in problem behavior between those who contacted their donor and those who did not by age 30-33.
“The overall positive adjustment of established adults of lesbian parents from ages 10 to 30-33 likely reflects the resilience developed by this cohort and the adaptive strategies that lesbian-parent families developed to cope with the long history of stigmatization associated with their family structure,” the researchers write.
There were some limitations to their findings, as the people in the sample were primarily white and cisgender, they note. “Future studies would benefit from including a sample in which race, ethnicity, and gender identity intersect to offer a more representative perspective on the psychological adjustment of donor-conceived offspring of lesbian parents,” they say.
Overall, however, “these findings contribute to the broader field of reproductive psychology, providing practitioners and policymakers with valuable insights to support diverse family structures while navigating the evolving challenges posed by technological advancements and societal shifts,” according to the researchers. “This support is especially critical for lesbian parents and their offspring in the United States, who are currently facing an unprecedented reactionary backlash against LGBTQ+ rights and issues … potentially jeopardizing their overall well-being and adjustment in the years to come.”
The new study’s authors are Nicola Carone of the University of Rome Tor Vergata; Audrey S. Koh of the University of California, San Francisco; Henny M.W. Bos of the University of Amsterdam; Esther D. Rothblum of San Diego State University; and Nanette K. Gartrell of the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law.
