Parenting and psychosocial development of IVF children: a follow-up study.

Full Abstract

BACKGROUND:
This report details a follow-up study of the parent-child relationship and the child's psychosocial development after IVF. The pilot study compared 31 IVF families and 31 families with a naturally conceived child when the children were aged 2 years. Twenty-seven IVF and 23 control families participated again when the children were aged 8-9 years.

METHODS:
Fathers and mothers completed questionnaires assessing parenting variables and the child's behaviour. For most children, behavioural ratings were also obtained from the child's teacher.

RESULTS:
No significant differences were found between IVF and control parents' reports of child behaviour, parenting behaviour, parenting stress and most of the parenting goals. The parenting goal adjustment was significantly more important for IVF than for control fathers; religion was more important for IVF than for naturally conceiving mothers. Teacher ratings of the child's behaviour did not differ significantly between the IVF and control groups. All couples but one had talked to other persons about the IVF conception; 75% of the IVF parents had not yet informed their children. IVF parents who had informed their child observed more (internalizing and for fathers also overall) problem behaviours in their child, compared with IVF parents who had not yet disclosed the IVF conception.

CONCLUSIONS:
Parenting and the children's psychosocial development do not differ significantly between IVF families and control families.

Learn Faster Today Improve your study skills

Author information

Author/s: Colpin, H (H); Soenen, S (S);

Affiliation: Catholic University of Leuven, Faculty of Psychology and Pedagogical Sciences, Centre for Family Pedagogy, Leuven, Belgium. hilde.colpin(-atsign-)ped.kuleuven.ac.be

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Human reproduction (Oxford, England) (Hum Reprod), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2002-Apr; vol 17 (issue 4) : pp 1116-23

Dates: Created 2002/04/01; Completed 2002/10/09; Revised 2004/11/17;

PMID: 11925416, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article (including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.

MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

These are the highest related articles currently in the database:

See 100+ related articles.