Donor insemination: child development and family functioning in lesbian mother families.

Findings are presented of a comparative study investigating the family relationships and the emotional and gender development of children raised in lesbian mother families. A total of 30 lesbian mother families with 4-8 year old children created as a result of donor insemination (DI) were compared with 38 heterosexual families with a DI child and with 30 heterosexual families who had a naturally conceived child. A variety of assessment measures, including a standardized interview and questionnaires from the parents and psychological testing of the child were used to collect the data. The quality of the couples' relationships and the quality of the mother-child interaction did not differ between lesbian mother families and either of the heterosexual family groups. The quality of the interaction between the social mother and the child in lesbian families was superior to that between the father and the child in both groups of heterosexual families. Childrens' own perception of their parents was similar in all family types; the social mother in lesbian families was regarded by the child to be as much a 'parent' as the father in both types of heterosexual families. With regard to their emotional/behavioural development, boys and girls raised in lesbian mother families were well adjusted and their gender role development did not differ from that of children raised in heterosexual families. These results indicate that child and family development in lesbian mother families is similar to that of heterosexual families.

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本文发现是通过对女同性恋母亲家庭中长大的孩子的家庭关系、情感和性别发展的比较研究调查的形式来呈现的。研究人员将30个有4—8岁孩子的女同性恋家庭与38个有人工授精孩子的异性恋家庭和30个有自然受孕孩子的异性恋家庭进行了比较。收集数据时采用了多种评估措施，包括标准化的访谈和来自家长的问卷调查以及对孩子的心理测试。伴侣关系的质量和母子互动的质量在女同性恋家庭和异性恋家庭之间没有区别。女同性恋家庭的社会母亲与孩子的互动质量均优于异性恋家庭的社会母亲与孩子的互动质量。孩子自身对家长的认知在所有类型的家庭中是相似的；在两种异性恋家庭中，女同性恋家庭中的社会母亲被孩子视为和父亲一样的“家长”。在情感/行为发展方面，在女同性恋母亲家庭中长大的男孩和女孩适应良好，他们的性别角色发展与异性恋家庭中的孩子没有区别。这些结果表明，女同性恋母亲家庭的孩子成长和家庭发展与异性恋家庭相似。