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Sociological Accounts of Donor Siblings’ Experiences: Their Importance for Self-Identity and New Kinship Relations

A fundamental part of the adolescent self is formed through interaction with intimates, usually family members whose roles are reasonably well-defined. However, donor siblings—children who share a sperm donor—lack social scripts for interacting with one another, particularly when they are raised in...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Hertz, Rosanna
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8871783/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35206190
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19042002
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author Hertz, Rosanna
author_facet Hertz, Rosanna
author_sort Hertz, Rosanna
collection PubMed
description A fundamental part of the adolescent self is formed through interaction with intimates, usually family members whose roles are reasonably well-defined. However, donor siblings—children who share a sperm donor—lack social scripts for interacting with one another, particularly when they are raised in different households. Moreover, they are often challenged to figure out their relationship to newly discovered genetic relatives. This article examines how donor-conceived teens and young adults navigate relationships with their half siblings and form intimate relationships. Drawing on Garfinkel’s concept of indexing, or the use of familiar categories to make sense of new situations, these youth rely upon their personal knowledge of friends and family to figure out what kinds of relationship they can develop with donor siblings. Based on interviews with 62 youth aged 14–28, who had their own social media accounts and who had chosen to establish contact with their donor siblings, the articles discusses the three stages most donor siblings go through—“anticipation”, “first contact”, and “relationship building”—and the way those stages shape individual identity formation. In the course of the analysis, the article also explores whether interaction with donor siblings affected individual’s sense of identity and whether feelings of closeness with donor siblings differ for youth raised as solo children versus those who have siblings with whom they share a household. For those who report feeling close, youth describe how intimacy is sustained and negotiated at a distance. Finally, as much as youth pick and choose intimates from their larger network, the article also argues that their collective identity as related-kin members remains.
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spelling pubmed-88717832022-02-25 Sociological Accounts of Donor Siblings’ Experiences: Their Importance for Self-Identity and New Kinship Relations Hertz, Rosanna Int J Environ Res Public Health Article A fundamental part of the adolescent self is formed through interaction with intimates, usually family members whose roles are reasonably well-defined. However, donor siblings—children who share a sperm donor—lack social scripts for interacting with one another, particularly when they are raised in different households. Moreover, they are often challenged to figure out their relationship to newly discovered genetic relatives. This article examines how donor-conceived teens and young adults navigate relationships with their half siblings and form intimate relationships. Drawing on Garfinkel’s concept of indexing, or the use of familiar categories to make sense of new situations, these youth rely upon their personal knowledge of friends and family to figure out what kinds of relationship they can develop with donor siblings. Based on interviews with 62 youth aged 14–28, who had their own social media accounts and who had chosen to establish contact with their donor siblings, the articles discusses the three stages most donor siblings go through—“anticipation”, “first contact”, and “relationship building”—and the way those stages shape individual identity formation. In the course of the analysis, the article also explores whether interaction with donor siblings affected individual’s sense of identity and whether feelings of closeness with donor siblings differ for youth raised as solo children versus those who have siblings with whom they share a household. For those who report feeling close, youth describe how intimacy is sustained and negotiated at a distance. Finally, as much as youth pick and choose intimates from their larger network, the article also argues that their collective identity as related-kin members remains. MDPI 2022-02-11 /pmc/articles/PMC8871783/ /pubmed/35206190 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19042002 Text en © 2022 by the author. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Hertz, Rosanna
Sociological Accounts of Donor Siblings’ Experiences: Their Importance for Self-Identity and New Kinship Relations
title Sociological Accounts of Donor Siblings’ Experiences: Their Importance for Self-Identity and New Kinship Relations
title_full Sociological Accounts of Donor Siblings’ Experiences: Their Importance for Self-Identity and New Kinship Relations
title_fullStr Sociological Accounts of Donor Siblings’ Experiences: Their Importance for Self-Identity and New Kinship Relations
title_full_unstemmed Sociological Accounts of Donor Siblings’ Experiences: Their Importance for Self-Identity and New Kinship Relations
title_short Sociological Accounts of Donor Siblings’ Experiences: Their Importance for Self-Identity and New Kinship Relations
title_sort sociological accounts of donor siblings’ experiences: their importance for self-identity and new kinship relations
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8871783/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35206190
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19042002
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