Prof. Susan Golombok has a new paper out today in the journal, Developmental Psychology! Written with colleagues, Kitty Jones & Poppy Hall (Cambridge), Sarah Foley (Edinburgh), Sooz Imrie & Vasanti Jadva (UCL).
For more information about the study, you can check out these news articles:
by the University: Assisted reproduction kids grow up just fine – but it may be better to tell them early about biological origins, twenty-year study suggests.
"Landmark study finds no difference in psychological wellbeing or quality of family relationships between children born by assisted reproduction (egg or sperm donation or surrogacy) and those born naturally at age 20. However, findings suggest that telling children about their biological origins early – before they start school – can be advantageous for family relationships and healthy adjustment."
& by CNN: When children are told they were born via assisted reproduction can affect outcomes, study finds.
"Parents worried their children may experience difficulties as a result of learning they were conceived by assisted reproduction can stop fretting — the kids are just fine, according to the study published this week after two decades in the making."
Full paper: Golombok, S., Jones, C., Hall, P., Foley, S., Imrie, S., & Jadva, V. "A longitudinal study of families formed through third-party assisted reproduction: Mother-child relationships and child adjustment from infancy to adulthood." Developmental Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001526.
This research was funded by a Wellcome Trust Collaborative Award.
For further information about the study or for media enquiries, please contact lg648@cam.ac.uk