Whither IVF assisted birth or spontaneous conception? Parenting anxiety, styles and child development in Jamaican families

Abstract

Objective: This research compared Jamaican parents who were assisted to reproduce through in vitro fertilisation or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (IVF/ICSI) with parents who conceived spontaneously (SC) for differences in parenting anxiety, perceived burden of having a child and parenting styles; and whether the cognitive and social-adaptive development of the children of these parents differed. Background: Despite the growing popularity of assisted reproductive technology (ART), the change in attitude towards and acceptance of ART by society has not been considered much in the relevant literature. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 IVF/ICSI parents and 60 SC parents using measures of parenting styles and anxiety, spousal relationship and impact of having a child on the family. First-born children, 7 years and under, were assessed using standardised measures of cognitive and social-adaptive functioning. Results: SC parents reported higher levels of parenting anxiety, emotional burden and the child impacting negatively on family life. Regardless of type of conception, only age was predictive of parenting anxiety. There were no significant differences in parenting practices between the groups, but SC parents reported parenting beliefs that were permissive or autocratic in nature. IVF children obtained higher mean scores on IQ measures and most social-adaptive domains. Linear regressions showed that parents’ education was associated with communication skills. Conclusions: IVF/ICSI parents were not more anxious than SC parents in a culture where ART is emerging and seemingly controversial. The findings have implications for coping with having a child not only for IVF/ICSI families but for young families in general.

Keywords:

• assisted reproduction
• child development