Social versus biological parenting: family functioning and the socioemotional development of children conceived by egg or sperm donation.

By investigating egg donation families, donor insemination families, adoptive families, and families created by in vitro fertilization, the aim of the present study was to examine parents' emotional well-being, the quality of parenting, and childrens' socioemotional development in families with a child who is genetically unrelated to the mother or the father. The differences that were found to exist between families according to the presence or absence of genetic ties between parents and their children reflected greater psychological well-being among mothers and fathers in families where there was no genetic link between the mother and the child. The families did not differ with respect to the quality of parenting or the psychological adjustment of the child.