Here’s some good news for families with kids conceived through IVF – at adolescence, they show no differences with families with children conceived “naturally.”
A study from the University of Leuven in Belgium, published in the journal Human Reproduction, looked at families with 15 and 16 year old children who had participated in a similar study when their children were two years old. Both parents and children of IVF families and non-IVF families filled out questionnaires assessing the parents’ parenting style and stress, and the teens’ psychosocial adjustment. Both teens and parents filled out both surveys.
The sample size was small; only 24 families in the study group and 21 in the control group.
The study found no significant differences in parenting style or in parenting stress between IVF mothers and fathers and mothers and fathers in the control group. There was also no significant difference between the groups in self- or parent-reported behavioral problems. Interestingly, a comparison of behavioral problems between IVF adolescents informed or not informed about the IVF conception did not reveal significant differences. That surprised me – I always thought the conventional wisdom that telling children is much more healthy that not would be borne out by research.
According to the research team, the study is the first psychosocial follow-up of IVF parents and children in mid-adolescence, and adds to the evidence that IVF children and their parents are well-adjusted.
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