Self-esteem and problem behavior in Dutch adolescents conceived through sperm donation in planned lesbian parent families.
Until 2004, Dutch women seeking donor insemination through medical facilities could opt for open-identity or anonymous donors. Since then, Dutch law only permits open-identity donation. The present study compared the well-being of adolescents conceived before 2004 through known, open-identity, and anonymous donors, and born into planned lesbian parent families (i.e., the mothers identified as lesbian before the children were conceived). The sixty-seven participating adolescents (Mage = 16.04 years) completed the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and the Youth Self-Report, and answered questions about their donor. Thirty-three were conceived through known, twenty-two through open-identity, and twelve through anonymous donors. No significant associations were found between donor type and self-esteem or problem behavior. Likewise, no significant differences were found on these two variables for adolescents with known donors who did or did not play important roles in their lives. For adolescents conceived with sperm from as-yet unknown donors (open-identity or anonymous), feeling uncomfortable about not knowing the donor was associated with lower self-esteem and more externalizing problem behavior. That donor type was found to have no bearing on adolescent self-esteem or problem behavior may be useful to prospective lesbian parents.
['Bos|Henny|H|', 'van Rijn-van Gelderen|Loes|L|', 'Gartrell|Nanette|N|']
D000293:Adolescent D000294:Adolescent Behavior D002669:Child Welfare D005193:Family Planning Services D005260:Female D018452:Homosexuality, Female D006801:Humans D008297:Male D009035:Mothers D009426:Netherlands D010290:Parents D000066553:Problem Behavior D000297:Psychology, Adolescent D012649:Self Concept D000072339:Sexual and Gender Minorities D014019:Tissue Donors D014342:Truth Disclosure
self-esteem well-being donor type Adolescent offspring lesbian mothers