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Hum. Reprod. Advance Access originally published online on February 25, 2005
Human Reproduction 2005 20(6):1655-1660; doi:10.1093/humrep/deh823
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© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions{at}oupjournals.org

Solo mothers and their donor insemination infants: follow-up at age 2 years

C. Murray1 and S. Golombok

Family and Child Psychology Research Centre, City University, Northampton Square, London EC1V OHB, UK

1 To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: c.murray{at}city.ac.uk

BACKGROUND: Findings are presented of the second phase of a longitudinal study of solo-mother families created through donor insemination (DI). METHODS: At the time of the child's second birthday, 21 solo DI mother families were compared with 46 married DI families on standardized interview and questionnaire measures of the psychological well being of the mothers, mother–child relationships and the psychological development of the child. RESULTS: The solo DI mothers showed greater pleasure in their child and lower levels of anger accompanied by a perception of their child as less ‘clingy’. Fewer emotional and behavioural difficulties were shown by children of solo than married DI mothers. CONCLUSIONS: The findings from this first cohort of solo DI families to be studied lend further weight to the view that these women represent a distinct subgroup of single parents, who, out of a strong desire for a child, have made the active choice to go it alone. Moreover, this route to parenthood does not necessarily seem to have an adverse effect on mothers' parenting ability or the psychological adjustment of the child.

Key words: child development/donor insemination/parenting/solo mother


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