Is the Psychological Adjustment of Donor-Conceived Children of Lesbians Higher than that of Other Children?

Abstract

The recent publication of the “US National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study: Psychological Adjustment of 17-Year-Old Adolescents” suggests that lesbian-headed families are not only as good, but better than father/mother families. However, the study suffers from several methodological flaws. The control group was mismatched for age, ethnicity, and level of education. The questionnaire was completed by one of the mothers, while similar questionnaires filled out by the children or by teachers were not included. Six of the seventy-seven lesbian couples separated prior to conception while forty separated later on (60 percent separation rate). The effect of the redundancy of a lesbian family unit may temper the effect of separation, but this leads to conflicts in the relationship, which impact the children. In a prior study the effect of conception by donor sperm has been shown to be associated with depression, delinquency, and substance abuse, with those born to lesbian couples twice as likely to say they have struggled with substance abuse. Children born to a mother in a lesbian relationship through donor insemination are deprived of something to which every child has a right—a father—and sooner or later the child will ask, “Why me?”