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Background: Parental burnout - a condition characterised by intense exhaustion related to parenting, emotional distancing from one's children, a loss of parental fulfilment, and a lack of recognition of oneself as the parent used and wanted to be - is particularly critical during the perinatal period. While previous research has focused mainly on mothers, suggesting that dispositional and couple factors influence parental burnout more than sociodemographic factors, little is known about fathers' experiences and the influence of personality and couple functioning on parental burnout., Method: This cross-sectional study examined the impact of personality functioning (Level of Personality Functioning Scale - Brief Form 2.0) and the moderating role of parenting alliance (Parenting Alliance Measure) on parental burnout (Parental Burnout Assessment) among 434 cisgender heterosexual first-time parents (345 primary caregiving mothers: M age  = 38.03, SD  = 6.20; 89 secondary caregiving fathers: M age  = 38.29, SD  = 6.85) with children aged 0-12 months (49.54% assigned females at birth)., Results: Fathers reported lower parental burnout and higher parenting alliance compared to mothers. Greater impairments in self-functioning were associated with increased parental burnout, particularly in mothers. Parenting alliance moderated this relationship; lower perceived parenting alliance amplified the negative impact of self-functioning impairments on parental burnout for both mothers and fathers. Interpersonal functioning did not significantly predict parental burnout., Conclusion: Tailored interventions, especially perinatally, should aim at strengthening parenting alliance and enhancing mothers' and fathers' self-functioning, with future research exploring diverse family and cultural contexts for comprehensive intervention strategies. Limitations and future directions are discussed.

Objective: The present study aimed at investigating whether gay fathers' coherence of mind within the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) moderated the influence of parental disclosure on children's exploration of their surrogacy origins during middle childhood and early adolescence., Background: Once children of gay fathers are disclosed to about their surrogacy conception, they may start exploring the meanings and implications of their conception. Very little is known about the factors that may enhance such exploration in gay father families., Method: A home-visit study was conducted with 60 White, cisgender, gay fathers and their 30 children born through gestational surrogacy, all residing in Italy and with medium to high socioeconomic status. At time 1, when children were aged 6-12 years ( M  = 8.31, SD = 1.68), fathers were rated for AAI coherence of mind and interviewed about their disclosure of the surrogacy origins to their child. At time 2, approximately 18 months later ( M  = 9.87, SD = 1.69), children were interviewed about their exploration of their surrogacy origins., Results: In the context of more information disclosed about the child conception, only children whose fathers showed greater AAI coherence of mind explored their surrogacy origins in more depth., Conclusion: Gay fathers' ability to show an internally consistent, but not emotionally overwrought, state of mind regarding their own attachment experiences impacted the extent to which their children felt safe and legitimated in sharing their curiosity about their conception.

Aims: The present study examined the associations between family structure, parenting, and dyadic coping and children's emotion regulation in lesbian, gay, and heterosexual parent families through assisted reproduction. It also explored differences in parenting dimensions and dyadic coping, based on parents' sexual orientation., Methods: Participants were 60 lesbian mothers through donor insemination, 50 gay fathers through surrogacy, and 42 heterosexual parents through gamete donation, all with a child aged 6-12 years ( M  = 8.67; SD = 2.16; 48.68% females) and residing in Italy. In each family, both parents reported parenting stress, parent - child relational self-efficacy, parental control, dyadic coping, and their perception of the child's emotion regulation., Results: Mixed models indicated no significant differences between family types in parenting stress and use of a controlling parenting style. However, lesbian mothers reported higher parent - child relational self-efficacy than heterosexual parents, and higher dyadic coping strategies than gay fathers. Also, children of gay fathers showed greater emotion regulation than children of heterosexual parents. Across family types, higher levels of parenting stress and dyadic coping, and lower levels of parent - child relational self-efficacy were associated with lower child emotion regulation., Conclusion: Given that in middle childhood, across family types, better emotional regulation was associated with lower parenting stress and dyadic coping, and greater effectiveness in the parent - child relationship clinical work should focus on the parent's and couple's ability to cooperatively manage stressors while maintaining a balanced focus on their children's resources and autonomy.

Aim: The present study examined how adult offspring of lesbian parents relate to their anonymous, open-identity, or known donors., Design: An online survey of 75 donor-conceived offspring of lesbian parents, aged 30-33 years, participating in Wave 7 of a U.S. 36-year longitudinal study of planned lesbian-parent families was conducted. Offspring were asked about donor type, motivations for contacting the donor, terminology for the donor, relationship quality, means of relationship maintenance, impact of donor contact on offspring's other family members, and their feelings about the donor., Results: Twenty offspring with anonymous donors and 15 with open-identity donors whom they had not contacted felt comfortable not knowing their donors. Forty offspring knew their donors - anonymous, contacted through an online registry ( n  = 7), open-identity, contacted ( n  = 9), or known since childhood ( n  = 24). Offspring who had contacted their donor since age 18 had their motivations fulfilled after contact, got along well with him, did not view him as a relative, and had told most family members about their contact, without detriment. Whether the donor was unknown or known at this stage of their lives, most offspring were satisfied with their contact level., Conclusion: This cohort of donor-conceived offspring of lesbian parents was among the first to reach adulthood during a time of technological advances in DNA testing, giving access to anonymous donors via online registries. The results inform donors, families, mental health providers, medical providers and public policymakers, on whether, how, and to what degree donor-conceived offspring optimally make donor contact.

Socio-cultural changes and advancements in assisted reproduction over the past 40 years have led to a rise in new family forms, including same-sex parent families formed through donor insemination or surrogacy, wherein the loving couple does not coincide with the generative couple and the parents do not embody sexual difference. Can we still understand the gender identification processes and the path of accessing one's origins through the lens of the Oedipal complex? In keeping with the Freudian concepts of "psychosexuality," "primal scene" and "family romance," as well as the more recent developments in psychoanalysis, attachment theory and infant research, this article aims at revisiting the Oedipal "complex" as Oedipal "complexity," which may apply irrespective of parents' anatomical characteristics. However, this "complexity" does not renounce parents' bodies and sexuality as important to children's development. Maintaining the concept of third following the parental couple, and position within generations in the idea of Oedipal complexity, the authors suggest that a child's development pathways will depend not only on the intersection of the child's Oedipal and pre-Oedipal levels, but also on the parents' early relational events and internalisation of their own parental figures, which are not necessarily pre-determined by their gender or sexual orientation.