“It’s Just Who I Am … I Have Brown Hair. I Have a Mysterious Father”: An Exploration of Donor-Conceived Offspring’s Identity Construction

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to explore the communication and identity-related experiences of members of donor-conceived families. Guided by the theory of symbolic interactionism and a constitutive view of communication, the present study sought to understand the ways in which anonymous sperm donor-conceived offspring (DCO) make sense of their experiences and communicatively construct their identities. In-depth interviews with 14 adult DCO and 24 online postings by DCO about their experiences being donor-conceived were inductively analyzed using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (Smith, 2011). The following five identity constructions were identified: (a) victims, (b) wanted children, (c) enigmatic, (d) storytellers, and (e) processes. The findings capture the multiplicity and complexity of DCO’s communication and identity processes.