Ricerc@Sapienza

Longitudinal studies and cross-sectional investigations of children of lesbian mothers who used sperm donation have consistently shown that they do not differ from children of heterosexual parent families in terms of psychological adjustment (Fedewa et al., 2015; Patterson, 2017). Difficulties experienced by these children appear to be associated with stigmatization by the outside world (Bos, Gartrell, 2010). Controlled studies of children of gay fathers were initiated following the millennium and largely focused on adoptive gay father families (Golombok et al., 2014), as the creation of gay father families by surrogacy is such a recent phenomenon that there is little research on children born in this way. To the best of our knowledge, the present study is one of the first to obtain in-depth data on gay father families created by surrogacy: (a) from multiple sources of information (parents, teachers, and children); (b) and through multiple methods (questionnaires, standardized interviews, and observational measurements). Participants were 40 Italian gay father families with a child born by surrogacy and egg donation and a comparison group of 40 Italian lesbian mother families with a child born by sperm donation. The two groups of families were matched for children's demographic variables, and number of children in the family. Multiple recruitment strategies were used through Rainbow Families Association, same-sex parent social groups, and snowballing. The following hypothesis were tested: (1) gay father families created by surrogacy experience greater difficulties in terms of stigmatization, parenting, and child adjustment than a comparison group of lesbian mother families created by sperm donation due to the additional challenges faced by gay father families formed in this way (Golombok et al., 2017); (2) stigmatization and quality of parenting were more strongly associated with children's adjustment than was family type (Bos, Gartrell, 2010).