Pride and Prejudice: The experiences of young donor-conceived adults in the UK

The number of children conceived using donated gametes in the UK is consistently increasing each year. As diverse paths to parenthood become increasingly well-trodden, gaining greater scientific understanding of the experiences and outcomes of those who are donor-conceived is vital. Building upon my previous research on the perspectives of donor-conceived children and adolescents, the proposed research will investigate the experiences and outcomes of donor-conceived young adults, a group that has yet to be the focus of systematic study. Understanding the experiences and outcomes of those who are donor-conceived as they move into adulthood is important, not least because it is now generally established that it is during the ages of 18-25 that people develop a real sense of who they are and where they belong. The proposed project will therefore investigate the importance and impact of donor conception on the identities, experiences and well-being of young adults. It will seek to understand how those who are donor-conceived navigate the social world at this particular stage in their development: from attending freshers' week events at university, to attending regular check-ups at the doctors.

The proposed research aims to address these issues by using a range of social scientific theories and methods that will put the perspectives of donor-conceived young adults at the forefront of the research agenda. Collecting data from 240 participants in total, including donor-conceived young adults and a control group of those conceived in more traditional circumstances, the research will employ both qualitative and quantitative methods that together allow for both the in-depth investigation of individual experiences, and group comparisons on a range of as yet unstudied psychological and social dimensions. The project has been designed to address the concerns raised about the representative nature of previous research on donor-conceived adults, which has either collected data from individuals who found out about their conception in challenging circumstances and feel negatively about this, or administered questionnaires to individuals registered on online platforms for identifying genetic relatives. The proposed research will also significantly extend the knowledge gained from previous studies of the psychological well-being of donor-conceived children and adolescents, which do not provide information on later development. Finally, the proposed research will move beyond previous scholarship that has primarily focussed on within-family factors. This is important, because little is yet known about the relationship between the social experiences of donor-conceived people and their well-being, although studies of the social climate indicate that donor conception remains socially stigmatised, and research on other topics has highlighted the negative consequences of such stigma for psychological health.

This research has been designed in consultation with the Donor Conception Network, the first and largest community-based network in the UK for donor conception families. Beyond being of significant scientific merit, the proposed research therefore responds to the needs of the donor conception community in general, and to the needs of donor-conceived young adults in particular. In 2023, the first cohort of young donor-conceived adults will reach the age at which they can legally identify the donors involved in their conception. Developing appropriate mechanisms to support these young adults through donor identifiability clearly requires an initial understanding of what it is like to be a young donor-conceived adult in Britain today. The proposed research will thus generate novel, and timely, insights that will not only lead to scientific discoveries that are of clear general interest, but will also inform the development of important resources that will benefit people conceived using donated gametes, both now, and in the future.

The impact strategy for the proposed project has been discussed at length with DCN, and has been designed with a view to developing resources that are (a) currently lacking and (b) would meet the needs of the user group. The strategy is based upon three key objectives, to:
1. Build awareness of the project amongst families formed using third-party assisted reproduction, and in particular, amongst donor-conceived adolescents and young adults;
2. Influence educational activities on family diversity and donor conception in secondary school settings;
3. Develop collaborative partnerships between academic and non-academic stakeholders in the field.
The non-academic beneficiaries of the proposed research are (i) donor conception families and young donor-conceived adults who engage with community support; (ii) donor conception families and young donor-conceived adults who do not engage with community support; and (iii) secondary school teachers.
Families who engage with community support will directly benefit through:
- Deliver a keynote presentation at the National DCN Conference in Spring 2022, and attend other DCN events as deemed appropriate by the Director;
- Develop a research webpage on the DCN website, to include regular study updates written for a general audience. The webpage will also host the open access publications that result from the project, which will each be accompanied by a summary for a general audience, and a short film about the research findings, with participants' stories re-told using actors' voices. The production of a short film at the end of the project dovetails with a bid for funding from The April Trust, for which DCN are currently awaiting the outcome.
Families who do not engage with DCN's activities will directly benefit through:
- The creation and dissemination of a resource booklet for prospective and current parents (Parenting through donor conception: Lessons from young donor-conceived adults), widely distributed to fertility clinics in the UK with whom DCN and I each have existing professional relationships. This resource will be developed in consultation with DCN and with the young adults who participate in the research. It will also indirectly benefit fertility professionals and counsellors, who have been found to be misinformed about the findings of research regarding the outcomes of those born through third-party assisted reproduction (Lee et al., 2017).
Secondary school teachers will directly benefit through:
- The creation and dissemination of a teachers' resource booklet (as above). This resource, Teaching about donor conception: Lessons from young donor-conceived adults, will be disseminated in the first instance amongst targeted schools in England with whom I have contact, and through the network of Advisory Committee Member Ian Bauckham OBE, CEO of the Tenax Schools Trust and Government Advisor on Sex & Relationships Education. Ian will advise on this resource, the development of which will also benefit from the project being hosted at UCL IOE, the number one institution in the world for research on education. This resource may also be of indirect benefit to students, whose knowledge of donor conception may be underpinned by a lack of information or indeed misinformation (Jadva et al., under review). It is anticipated that this resource may foster more productive, and positive, conversations about donor conception among young people in general.
Finally, the project will be of direct benefit to academic and non-academic stakeholders through the opportunities for networking and collaboration fostered by the end-of-project conference. As an engaged project developed in consultation with DCN, the research has built-in opportunities for knowledge exchange, to be primarily achieved through monthly meetings with DCN staff member Yael Ilan-Clarke. The collaborative nature of the project will also lead to capacity building for all involved.