Poster #157 - Sharing information with adolescents conceived using medical assistance: The role of family privacy orientation

• In Event: 1-169 - Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

Introduction:
The availability of medically assisted reproduction (MAR) procedures like in vitro fertilization (IVF) allows infertile couples to conceive children. Among parents who use MAR, the social stigma of infertility and MAR use lead some to keep their experience private, even from their children (Hjelmstedt et al., 2004). However, this secret-keeping within families may damage family relationships and result in child adjustment problems (Slepian et al., 2012). Thus, there is a need to better understand why parents chose to share or not share MAR conception and the consequences of this decision for child development. For this study, we relied on Communication Privacy Management Theory (CPMT; Petronio, 2002) which proposes families manage sensitive information through an open or restricted privacy orientation. CPMT further proposes that how families manage sensitive information influences secret-keeping outcomes. Additionally, we considered empirical evidence that outcomes of MAR information sharing are influenced by family context (Rueter et al., 2016). Thus, we hypothesized that family privacy orientations would moderate the association between MAR information sharing and adolescent adjustment.

Methods:
Participants included 188 IVF-conceived adolescents from 134 families (54.3% female; Mchild age = 13.36, SD = 1.30). 24 adolescents (12.8%) were conceived using IVF with sperm or eggs donated by a third party. Participating adolescents’ parents were predominantly White (95.8%), married (92.6%), and well-educated (80.3% had at least a Bachelor’s degree). Parents reported on study variables through an online survey. MAR information sharing was measured by whether a child knew about their MAR conception. Family privacy orientations were assessed by the Family Privacy Orientation Scale ( = .88). Adolescent adjustment was measured by the internalizing and externalizing problems scales of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). Latent profile analysis was conducted to identify family privacy orientation profiles. Linear mixed effect modeling was conducted to examine if family privacy profiles moderate the relationship between IVF information sharing and adolescent adjustment. Covariates included child’s donor status, child’s sex, child’s age, and parental depression.

Results:
Tables 1 and 2 display linear mixed effect model results and post hoc analyses results, respectively. Three participants could not be categorized into family privacy profiles due to missing data. Of the remaining participants, 34 were categorized into the “restricted family privacy orientation” profile (18.1%) and 151 into the “open family privacy orientation” profile (80.3%). We found a significant positive interaction effect between these family privacy profiles and IVF information sharing on adolescents’ externalizing problems (B = 5.86, SE = 1.62, p < .001). Post-hoc analyses revealed that adolescents who knew about their IVF conception and were living in families with a restricted privacy orientation exhibited greater externalizing problems than other adolescents.

Conclusion:
This study contributes to understanding the consequences of MAR information sharing. Family privacy orientations, as a familial contextual factor, moderated the effect of MAR information sharing on adolescent behavioral adjustment. This result has the potential to inform infertility counseling and the development of evidence-based family interventions.

Authors

• Jingchen Zhang, University of Minnesota
  Presenting Author

• Muzi Chen, University of Minnesota
  Non-Presenting Author

• Martha Rueter, University of Minnesota
  Non-Presenting Author