Findings are presented on a U.K. study of 41 gay father families, 40 lesbian mother families, and 49 heterosexual parent families with an adopted child aged 3–9 years. Standardized interview and observational and questionnaire measures of parental well-being, quality of parent–child relationships, child adjustment, and child sex-typed behavior were administered to parents, children, and teachers. The findings indicated more positive parental well-being and parenting in gay father families compared to heterosexual parent families. Child externalizing problems were greater among children in heterosexual families. Family process variables, particularly parenting stress, rather than family type were found to be predictive of child externalizing problems. The findings contribute to theoretical understanding of the role of parental gender and parental sexual orientation in child development.

An increasing number of babies are being born using donated sperm, where the child lacks a genetic link to the father, or donated eggs, where the child lacks a genetic link to the mother. This study examined the impact of telling children about their donor conception on mother-child relationships and children's psychological adjustment. Assessments of maternal positivity, maternal negativity, mother-child interaction and child adjustment were administered to 32 egg donation, 36 donor insemination and 54 natural conception families with a 7-year-old child. Although no differences were found for maternal negativity or child adjustment, mothers in nondisclosing gamete donation families showed less positive interaction than mothers in natural conception families suggesting families may benefit from openness about the child's genetic origins.Keywords gamete donation; egg donation; donor insemination; mother-child relationship; psychological adjustment Advances in reproductive medicine since the birth of the first baby through in vitro fertilization (IVF) in 1978 have resulted in more than 3 million children worldwide (International Committee for Monitoring Assisted Reproductive Technology, 2009). Many of these children are conceived using donated gametes (sperm or eggs), either through donor insemination or egg donation. Donor insemination refers to the insemination of a woman with the sperm of a man who is not her husband or partner. The resulting child is genetically related to the mother but not to the father who raises the child. Egg donation is like donor insemination in that the child is genetically related to only one parent, but in this case it is the mother with whom the child lacks a genetic link. With embryo donation, the child lacks a genetic link to both parents. In the case of intra-family donation, whereby gamete donation takes place between family members, the parent will have a partial genetic link to the child.Those who become parents through assisted reproductive procedures involving gamete donation tend not to tell their children about their donor conception and thus the majority of Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Susan Golombok, Centre for Family Research, Faculty of Politics Psychology Sociology and International Studies, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3RF, U.K. seg42@cam.ac.uk. The following manuscript is the final accepted manuscript. It has not been subjected to the final copyediting, fact-checking, and proofreading required for formal publication. It is not the definitive, publisher-authenticated version. The American Psychological Association and its Council of Editors disclaim any responsibility or liabilities for errors or omissions of this manuscript version, any version derived from this manuscript by NIH, or other third parties. The published version is available at www.apa.org/pubs/journals/fam NIH Public Access NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript children conceived in this way remain unaware that the...

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