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Associations between maternal older age, family environment and parent and child wellbeing in families using assisted reproductive techniques to conceive.

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posted on 2023-06-08, 21:47 authored by J Boivin, Frances Rice, Dale Hay, Gordon Harold, Allyson Lewis, Marianne M B van den Bree, Anita Thapar
Maternal age effects on parenting and family outcomes are of increasing interest because of the demographic shift toward older maternal age at first birth. Maternal age is also of interest because of the greater use of assisted reproductive techniques (ART) to bypass age-related infertility in couples trying to conceive late in the reproductive life cycle of the woman. The aim of the present study was to investigate maternal age effects associated with delayed parenting by comparing families of mothers who gave birth at a younger (<31 years) or older (>38 years) age and to ascertain whether associations were linear associations by comparing these groups to women who had conceived in between these ages (i.e., >31 and <38 years). All children (4-11 year olds) were first-born and conceived using ART. Participants were recruited from one of 20 fertility clinics and mothers (n = 642) and fathers (n = 439) completed a postal questionnaire about demographic and reproductive characteristics, family environment as well as parent and child wellbeing. Our results demonstrate that parenthood via assisted conception later in the reproductive life cycle is not associated with a negative impact on child wellbeing. Despite maternal age-group differences on demographic (education, income) and reproductive characteristics (bleeding during pregnancy, caesarean rate, breast feeding), and parental warmth and depressive symptoms, child wellbeing was similar across mother age groups. We conclude that the parenting context is different for older mother families (more depressive symptoms in mothers and fathers, less expressed warmth in the couple) but that this difference is not associated with child wellbeing in early and middle childhood. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

Social Science and Medicine

ISSN

0277-9536

Publisher

Elsevier

Issue

11

Volume

68

Page range

1948-1955

Department affiliated with

  • Psychology Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2015-07-30

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2015-07-30

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2015-07-30

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