Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Gay and Heterosexual Single Father Families Created by Surrogacy: Father–Child Relationships, Parenting Quality, and Children’s Psychological Adjustment

  • Published:
Sexuality Research and Social Policy Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Introduction

The present study examined father-–child relationships, parenting quality, and child psychological adjustment in 35 gay single father surrogacy families, 30 heterosexual single father surrogacy families, 45 gay two-father surrogacy families, and 45 heterosexual two-parent IVF families, when children were aged 3–10 years.

Methods

In each family, fathers were administered standardized questionnaires and interviews, and participated in three video-recorded observational tasks with their child. Teachers and a child psychiatrist further rated child adjustment.

Results

The only differences across family types indicated greater parenting stress in gay and heterosexual single fathers. Irrespective of family type, lower sensitivity and supportive parenting predicted greater father-reported child internalizing problems; whereas lower rough-and-tumble play quality and sensitivity, greater negative parenting and parenting stress, and the child male gender predicted greater father-reported child externalizing problems. In teachers’ ratings, the child female gender was associated with greater child internalizing problems, whereas greater negative parenting, lower rough-and tumble play quality, and the child male gender were associated with greater child externalizing problems.

Conclusions

The results confirm that the adjustment of children born to gay and heterosexual single fathers through surrogacy is more a function of family processes than family structure.

Policy Implications

The results enable practitioners to develop an informed view of the influence of assisted reproduction on the adjustment of children born to single fathers through surrogacy. In this vein, it is empirically unfounded for policymakers to consider children born to single fathers through surrogacy at risk of developing psychological problems, as well as to continue to ban single men from accessing fertility treatments.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abidin, R. (1990). Parenting stress index (PSI) – Test manual. Charlottesville, VA: Pediatric Psychology Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Achenbach, T. M., McConaughy, S. H., & Howell, C. T. (1987). Child/adolescent behavioral and emotional problems: Implications of cross-informant correlations for situational specificity. Psychological Bulletin, 101, 213–232.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Armesto, J. C. (2002). Developmental and contextual factors that influence gay fathers’ parental competence: A review of the literature. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 3, 67–78.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aspland, H., & Gardner, F. (2003). Observational measures of parent-child interaction. Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 8, 136–144.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Baiocco, R., Carone, N., Ioverno, S., & Lingiardi, V. (2018). Same-sex and different-sex parent families in Italy: Is parents’ sexual orientation associated with child health outcomes and parental dimensions? Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, 39, 555–563.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Biblarz, T. J., & Stacey, J. (2010). How does the gender of parents matter? Journal of Marriage and Family, 72, 3–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bollen, K. A. (1989). Structural equations with latent variables. New York, NY: Wiley.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bos, H. M. W., & Gartrell, N. K. (2010). Adolescents of the USA National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study: Can family characteristics counteract the negative effects of stigmatization? Family Process, 49, 559–572.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bos, H. M. W., & van Balen, F. (2008). Children in planned lesbian families: Stigmatization, psychological adjustment and protective factors. Culture, Health & Sexuality, 10, 221–236.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bos, H. M. W., van Balen, F., van den Boom, D. C., & Sandfort, T. G. (2004). Minority stress, experience of parenthood and child adjustment in lesbian families. Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology, 22, 291–304.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cabrera, N., Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., Bradley, R. H., Hofferth, S., & Lamb, M. E. (2000). Fatherhood in the twenty-first century. Child Development, 71, 127–136.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cabrera, N. J., Volling, B. L., & Barr, R. (2018). Fathers are parents, too! Widening the lens on parenting for children’s development. Child Development Perspectives, 12, 152–157.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carneiro, F. A., Tasker, F., Salinas-Quiroz, F., Leal, I., & Costa, P. A. (2017). Are the fathers alright? A systematic and critical review of studies on gay and bisexual fatherhood. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 1636.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Carone, N., Baiocco, R., & Lingiardi, V. (2017a). Italian gay fathers’ experiences of transnational surrogacy and their relationship with the surrogate pre-and post-birth. Reproductive BioMedicine Online, 34, 181–190.

  • Carone, N., Baiocco, R., & Lingiardi, V. (2017b). Single fathers by choice using surrogacy: Why men decide to have a child as a single parent. Human Reproduction, 32, 1871–1879.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Carone, N., Lingiardi, V., Chirumbolo, A., & Baiocco, R. (2018). Italian gay father families formed by surrogacy: Parenting, stigmatization, and children’s psychological adjustment. Developmental Psychology, 54, 1904–1916.

  • Chan, R. W., Raboy, B., & Patterson, C. J. (1998). Psychosocial adjustment among children conceived via donor insemination by lesbian and heterosexual mothers. Child Development, 69, 443–457.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coles, R. L. (2015). Single-father families: A review of the literature. Journal of Family Theory & Review, 7, 144–166.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Collins, W. A., Maccoby, E. E., Steinberg, L., Hetherington, E. M., & Bornstein, M. H. (2000). Contemporary research on parenting. The case for nature and nurture. American Psychologist, 55, 218–232.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cox, M. J., & Paley, B. (1997). Families as systems. Annual Review of Psychology, 48, 243–267.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • De Wert, G., Dondorp, W., Shenfield, F., Barri, P., Devroey, P., Diedrich, K., et al. (2014). ESHRE task force on ethics and law 23: Medically assisted reproduction in singles, lesbian and gay couples, and transsexual people. Human Reproduction, 29, 1859–1865.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Deakin, H., & Wakefield, K. (2014). Skype interviewing: Reflections of two PhD researchers. Qualitative Research, 14, 603–616.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deater-Deckard, K. (1998). Parenting stress and child adjustment: Some old hypotheses and new questions. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 5, 314–332.

    Google Scholar 

  • Derogatis, L. R. (2001). Brief symptom inventory (BSI) 18: Administration, scoring, and procedures manual. Minneapolis, MN: NCS Pearson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Derogatis, L. R., & Melisaratos, N. (1983). The Brief Symptom Inventory: An introductory report. Psychological Medicine, 13, 595–605.

  • Development Core Team, R. (2018). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna: R Foundation for Statistical Computing Retrieved from http://www.R-project.org.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dienes, Z. (2011). Bayesian versus orthodox statistics: Which side are you on? Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6, 274–290.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Erez, C., & Shenkman, G. (2016). Gay dads are happier: Subjective well-being among gay and heterosexual fathers. Journal of GLBT Family Studies, 12, 451–467.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eurostat (2019). People in the EU – statistics on household and family structures. Retrieved from: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=People_in_the_EU_-_statistics_on_household_and_family_structures#Single-person_households.

  • Farr, R. H. (2017). Does parental sexual orientation matter? A longitudinal follow-up of adoptive families with school-age children. Developmental Psychology, 53, 252–264.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Farr, R. H., Bruun, S. T., & Patterson, C. J. (2019). Longitudinal associations between coparenting and child adjustment among lesbian, gay, and heterosexual adoptive parent families. Developmental Psychology, 55, 2547–2560.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fedewa, A. L., Black, W. W., & Ahn, S. (2015). Children and adolescents with same-gender parents: A meta-analytic approach in assessing outcomes. Journal of GLBT Family Studies, 11, 1–34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fletcher, R., StGeorge, J., & Freeman, E. (2013). Rough and tumble play quality: Theoretical foundations for a new measure of father–child interaction. Early Child Development and Care, 183, 746–759.

  • Gartrell, N. K., Bos, H. M. W., & Koh, A. (2018). National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study—Mental health of adult offspring. New England Journal of Medicine, 379, 297–299.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goldberg, A. E., & Gartrell, N. K. (2014). LGB-parent families: The current state of the research and directions for the future. Advances in Child Development and Behavior, 46, 57–88.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Golombok, S. (2015). Modern families: Parents and children in new family forms. Cambridge, UK: University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Golombok, S., Blake, L., Slutsky, J., Raffanello, E., Roman, G. D., & Ehrhardt, A. (2018). Parenting and the adjustment of children born to gay fathers through surrogacy. Child Development, 89, 1223–1233.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Golombok, S., Tasker, F., & Murray, C. (1997). Children raised in fatherless families from infancy: Family relationships and the socioemotional development of children of lesbian and single heterosexual mothers. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 38, 783–791.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Golombok, S., Zadeh, S., Imrie, S., Smith, V., & Freeman, T. (2016). Single mothers by choice: Mother–child relationships and children’s psychological adjustment. Journal of Family Psychology, 30, 409–418.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Goodman, A., Lamping, D. L., & Ploubidis, G. B. (2010). When to use broader internalising and externalising subscales instead of the hypothesised five subscales on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ): Data from British parents, teachers and children. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 38, 1179–1191.

  • Goodman, R. (1997). The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire: A research note. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 38, 581–586.

  • Goodman, R., Ford, T., Richards, H., Gatward, R., & Meltzer, H. (2000). The Development and Well-Being Assessment: Description and initial validation of an integrated assessment of child and adolescent psychopathology. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 41, 645–655.

  • Green, R. J., Rubio, R. J., Rothblum, E. D., Bergman, K., & Katuzny, K. (2019). Gay fathers by surrogacy. Prejudice, parenting, and well-being of female and male children. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, 6, 269–283.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guarino, A., Di Blasio, P., D’Alessio, M., Camisasca, E., & Serantoni, G. (2008). Validazione italiana del Parenting Stress Index forma breve per l’identificazione precoce di sistemi relazionali genitore-bambino stressanti. Firenze: Giunti O.S.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ioverno, S., Carone, N., Lingiardi, V., Nardelli, N., Pagone, P., Pistella, J., et al. (2018). Assessing prejudice toward two-father parenting and two-mother parenting: The Beliefs On Same-Sex Parenting scale. The Journal of Sex Research, 55, 654–665.

  • Jadva, V. (2016). Surrogacy: Issues, concerns and complexities. In S. Golombok, R. Scott, J. B. Appleby, M. Richards, & S. Wilkinson (Eds.), Regulating reproductive donation (pp. 126–139). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Jadva, V., Badger, S., Morrissette, M., & Golombok, S. (2009). “Mom by choice, single by life’s circumstance...”: Findings from a large scale survey of the experiences of single mothers by choice. Human Fertility, 12, 175–184.

  • John, A., Halliburton, A., & Humphrey, J. (2013). Child–mother and child–father play interaction patterns with preschoolers. Early Child Development and Care, 183, 483–497.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kok, R., Linting, M., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J., van IJzendoorn, M. H., Jaddoe, V. W. V., Hofman, A., et al. (2013). Maternal sensitivity and internalizing problems: Evidence from two longitudinal studies in early childhood. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 44, 751–765.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lamb, M. E. (2012). Mothers, fathers, families, and circumstances: Factors affecting children’s adjustment. Applied Developmental Science, 16, 98–111.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lansford, J. E., Ceballo, R., Abbey, A., & Stewart, A. J. (2001). Does family structure matter? A comparison of adoptive, two-parent biological, single-mother, stepfather, and stepmother households. Journal of Marriage and Family, 63, 840–851.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lansford, J. E., Godwin, J., Al-Hassan, S. M., Bacchini, D., Bornstein, M. H., Chang, L., et al. (2018). Longitudinal associations between parenting and youth adjustment in twelve cultural groups: Cultural normativeness of parenting as a moderator. Developmental Psychology, 54, 362–377.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lingiardi, V., & Carone, N. (2016). Lesbian mothers, gay fathers: An inconceivable conception? Giornale Italiano di Psicologia, 43, 57–79.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacCallum, F., & Golombok, S. (2004). Children raised in fatherless families from infancy: A follow‐up of children of lesbian and single heterosexual mothers at early adolescence. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 45, 1407–1419.

  • McKee, L., Colletti, C., Rakow, A., Jones, D. J., & Forehand, R. (2008). Parenting and child externalizing behaviors: Are the associations specific or diffuse? Aggression and Violent Behavior, 13, 201–215.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • McLeod, B. D., Wood, J. J., & Weisz, J. R. (2007). Examining the association between parenting and childhood anxiety: A meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 27, 155–172.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Menashe-Grinberg, A., & Atzaba-Poria, N. (2017). Mother–child and father–child play interaction: The importance of parental playfulness as a moderator of the links between parental behavior and child negativity. Infant Mental Health Journal, 38, 772–784.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Murray, C., & Golombok, S. (2005a). Going it alone: Solo mothers and their infants conceived by donor insemination. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 75, 242–253.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Murray, C., & Golombok, S. (2005b). Solo mothers and their donor insemination infants: Follow-up at age 2 years. Human Reproduction, 20, 1655–1660.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • NICHD Early Child Care Research Network. (2004). Trajectories of physical aggression from toddlerhood to middle childhood: Predictors, correlates, and outcomes. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 69, 1–129.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Notaro, P. C., & Volling, B. L. (1999). Parental responsiveness and infant-parent attachment: A replication study with fathers and mothers. Infant Behavior & Development, 22, 345–352.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Connor, T. G., Matias, C., Futh, A., Tantam, G., & Scott, S. (2013). Social learning theory parenting intervention promotes attachment-based caregiving in young children: Randomized clinical trial. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent, 53, 358–370.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Connor, T. G., Woolgar, M., Humayun, S., Briskman, J. A., & Scott, S. (2018). Early caregiving predicts attachment representations in adolescence: Findings from two longitudinal studies. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

  • Ostberg, M., & Hagekull, B. (2000). A structural modeling approach to the understanding of parenting stress. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 29, 615–625.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Patterson, C. J. (2017). Parents’ sexual orientation and children’s development. Child Development Perspectives, 11, 45–49.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rescorla, L. A., Ginzburg, S., Achenbach, T. M., Ivanova, M. Y., Almqvist, F., Begovac, I., et al. (2013). Cross-informant agreement between parent-reported and adolescent self-reported problems in 25 societies. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 42, 262–273.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scandurra, C., Bacchini, D., Esposito, C., Bochicchio, V., Valerio, P., & Amodeo, A. L. (2019). The influence of minority stress, gender, and legalization of civil unions on parenting desire and intention in lesbian women and gay men: Implications for social policy and clinical practice. Journal of GLBT Family Studies, 15, 76–100.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schwarz, G. E. (1978). Estimating the dimension of a model. The Annals of Statistics, 6, 461–464.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shenkman, G., & Shmotkin, D. (2014). “Kids are joy”: Psychological welfare among Israeli gay fathers. Journal of Family Issues, 35, 1926–1939.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shlafer, R. J., Raby, K. L., Lawler, J. M., Hesemeyer, P. S., & Roisman, G. I. (2015). Longitudinal associations between adult attachment states of mind and parenting quality. Attachment & Human Development, 17, 83–95.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stevenson-Hinde, J., & Shouldice, A. (1995). Maternal interactions and self-reports related to attachment classifications at 4.5 years. Child Development, 66, 583–596.

  • Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2012). Using multivariate statistics. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tasker, F., & Granville, J. (2011). Children’s views of family relationships in lesbian-led families. Journal of GLBT Family Studies, 7, 182–199.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tobia, V., Gabriele, M. A., & Marzocchi, G. M. (2013). The Italian version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)—Teacher: Psychometric properties. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 31, 493–505.

  • Tobia, V., & Marzocchi, G. M. (2018). The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire-parents for Italian school-aged children: Psychometric properties and norms. Child Psychiatry & Human Development, 49, 1–8.

  • van de Schoot, R., Kaplan, D., Denissen, J., Asendorpf, J. B., Neyer, F. J., & Aken, M. A. G. (2014). A gentle introduction to Bayesian analysis: Applications to developmental research. Child Development, 85, 842–860.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • van Rijn-van Gelderen, L., Bos, H. W. M., Jorgensen, T. D., Ellis-Davies, K., Winstanley, A., Golombok, S., et al. (2017). Wellbeing of gay fathers with children born through surrogacy: A comparison with lesbian-mother families and heterosexual IVF parent families. Human Reproduction, 33, 101–108.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Volling, B. L., & Cabrera, N. J. (2019). (Eds.). Advancing research and measurement on fathering and children’s development. Monographs of the Society of Research in Child Development, 84, 7–160.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wood, J. J., McLeod, B. D., Sigman, M., Hwang, W., & Chu, B. (2003). Parenting and childhood anxiety: Theory, empirical findings, and future directions. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 44, 134–151.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ziv, I., & Freund-Eschar, Y. (2015). The pregnancy experience of gay couples expecting a child through overseas surrogacy. The Family Journal, 23, 158–166.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to all children and their fathers and teachers who have made this research possible. We thank Prof. Roisman and his research team who kindly shared their Parenting Quality Interview with us. Alongside, we also thank Prof. Fletcher and his research team who agreed on using their coding manual for the assessment of observed rough-and-tumble play quality.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, Lab on Attachment and Parenting – LAG, University of Pavia, Piazza Botta 11, 27100, Pavia, Italy

    Nicola Carone & Lavinia Barone

  2. Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, via dei Marsi 78, 00185, Rome, Italy

    Roberto Baiocco

  3. Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, via degli Apuli 1, 00185, Rome, Italy

    Vittorio Lingiardi

Authors
  1. Nicola Carone
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Roberto Baiocco
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Vittorio Lingiardi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Lavinia Barone
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nicola Carone.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Carone, N., Baiocco, R., Lingiardi, V. et al. Gay and Heterosexual Single Father Families Created by Surrogacy: Father–Child Relationships, Parenting Quality, and Children’s Psychological Adjustment. Sex Res Soc Policy 17, 711–728 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-019-00428-7

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-019-00428-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation