Fiona MaccallumThe University of Warwick · Department of Psychology
Fiona Maccallum
PhD
About
42
Publications
24,851
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2,558
Citations
Citations since 2017
Introduction
Fiona Maccallum currently works at the Department of Psychology, The University of Warwick. Fiona does research in Developmental Psychology.
Skills and Expertise
Publications
Publications (42)
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a complex mental health condition often associated with previous childhood adversity including maladaptive parenting. When becoming a parent themselves, mothers with BPD have difficulties with various parenting cognitions and practices, but unknown is whether they have appropriate knowledge of sensitive pare...
Study question
How do donor conceived people, their parents and donors use direct-to-consumer genetic testing (DTCGT)?
Summary answer
DTCGT is changing how information about donor conception is accessed and managed by parents, donors and donor conceived people.
What is known already
Following the development and rapid expansion of DTCGT, there ha...
Additional verbatim quotes
Objectives: Previous literature demonstrated that, even when mental health and psychological support services are available for refugees, there may still be obstacles in accessing services. This is the first known study to explore the experiences of mental-health and well-being services for Syrian refugees in Coventry and Warwickshire, United Kingd...
Objective:
Confabulations are false memories which are expressedwithout the intention to deceive and arise following brain damage or psychological dysfunction. Confabulations can become a barrier to effective neuropsychological rehabilitation and consequently, intervention is required.The current review aimed to provide a detailed evaluative accou...
Globally, the average number of children per household is expected to drop to 1.0 by 2020. Single-child families are increasingly the norm, with nearly half of British families classified as single-child. Despite this, research on only-children and their families is scant. Using a convergent mixed-methods design, this study explores parenting of ad...
Goal reflection can have a beneficial impact on hope and cognitive flexibility, potentially via processes proposed under the Broaden and Build Hypothesis (BBH). In the present study, a novel goal-oriented intervention was developed to explore its efficacy in improving state and trait hope, affect, and cognitive flexibility. Using a convergent mixed...
While foster carers experience the rewards and challenges of parenting vulnerable and complex adolescents, some of these placements break down. Compared to research into the impact of placement breakdown on looked after children, there are relatively limited reports on how foster carers are affected. The aim of the present study was to provide an e...
In this paper we consider the impact of digitally altered images on individuals' body satisfaction and beauty aspirations. Drawing on current psychological literature we consider interventions designed to increase knowledge about the ubiquity and unreality of digital images and, in the form of labelling, provide information to the consumer. Such in...
This article introduces a Special Issue comprising four papers emerging from the Beauty Demands Network project, and maps key issues in the beauty debate. The introduction first discusses the purpose of the Network; to consider the changing demands of beauty across disciplines and beyond academia. It then summarises the findings of the Network work...
There is growing interest in whether the parenting strategies and offspring outcomes of mothers with borderline personality disorder (BPD) differ from those of mothers without BPD. We searched PsychINFO, PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, Scopus and ASSIA databases for studies examining parenting skills and attitudes among mothers with BPD and/or offs...
Aims:
The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of men during their partner's admission to a Mother and Baby Unit for first episode postpartum psychosis.
Background:
Postpartum psychosis can be life-changing for women, however little is known about the impact on their partners or their partners' needs.
Design:
An Interpretative Phen...
This study aimed to explore mothers' experience of implementing Lego Therapy at home within the family. Following a Lego Therapy training session, mothers carried out hourly sessions with their child with an autism spectrum condition and the child's sibling, once a week, for 6 weeks. Mothers were interviewed following the intervention, and the data...
Background:
Pregnancies achieved through medical treatments following a period of infertility may demand extra emotional and practical investment from women.
Aim:
This paper aims at understanding the experience of pregnancy after Assisted Reproductive Technology, and exploring whether this experience is affected by previous failed infertility tr...
Background
The quality of the parent–child relationship has an important effect on a wide range of child outcomes. The evaluation of interventions to promote healthy parenting and family relationships is dependent on outcome measures which can quantify the quality of parent–child relationships. Between the Mothers’ Object Relations – Short Form (MO...
Objective
To explore women's fears during pregnancy following conception via assisted reproductive technology (ART).
Methods
19 expectant first-time mothers were interviewed during the third trimester of pregnancy using a semi-structured schedule. Perceptions of and feelings about pregnancy were assessed. Content analysis was used to identify them...
Reproductive donation is the most contentious area of assisted reproduction. Even within Europe there are wide variations in what is permitted in each country. This multidisciplinary book takes a fresh look at the practices of egg, sperm and embryo donation and surrogacy, bringing together ethical analysis and empirical research. New evidence is of...
Attitudes towards information sharing in donor conception have changed in recent years in some parts of the world, with a move towards openness. This study follows up a sample of embryo donation mothers, examining their current disclosure patterns and comparing them with adoptive and IVF mothers to investigate any influence of the method of family...
Couples who conceive using donated embryos rear a child to whom they are genetically unrelated. It has been suggested that this may have negative consequences for parenting and child development. Findings are presented of the 2nd phase of an exploratory study of families with a child conceived through embryo donation. Seventeen embryo donation fami...
Embryo donation produces a family structure where neither rearing parent is genetically related to the child, as in adoption. It is not known how embryo donation parents view the donors compared with how adoptive parents view the birth parents.
21 couples with an embryo donation child aged 2-5 years were compared with 28 couples with an adopted chi...
Previous data suggest that parents who adopt a child tend to support full disclosure while donor conception families prefer to keep the method of conception relatively private. It is not known whether parents in embryo donation families will tend towards the adoption model, therefore, we studied families with a child conceived using donated embryos...
Concerns have been raised regarding the potentially negative effects of conception using donated embryos on parenting and child development. Findings are presented of an exploratory study of families with a child conceived through embryo donation. Twenty-one embryo donation families were compared with 28 adoptive families and 30 in vitro fertilizat...
Findings are presented of the third phase of a longitudinal study of children conceived by assisted reproduction procedures involving surrogacy and/or donor conception.
At the time of the child's third birthday, 34 surrogacy families, 41 donor insemination families and 41 oocyte donation families were compared with 67 natural conception families on...
To assess the quality of parenting and psychological adjustment of egg donation families as the child approaches adolescence in comparison with donor insemination (DI) and IVF families.
A study of 17 egg donation families, 35 DI families, and 34 IVF families with a 12-year-old child. Standardized interview and questionnaire measures were administer...
Findings are presented of the second phase of a longitudinal study of families created through surrogacy.
At the time of the child's 2nd birthday, 37 surrogacy families were compared with 48 egg donation families and 68 natural conception families on standardised interview and questionnaire measures of the psychological well-being of the parents, p...
This chapter looks at the practice of adoption, a method of parenthood sometimes overlooked when considering women’s reproductive options. Starting by summarising the evolution of adoption practice through history, it then explores the current state of adoption in the United Kingdom, with particular reference to the selection criteria required for...
Findings are presented of the second phase of a longitudinal study of families created through gamete donation.
At the time of the child's second birthday, 46 donor insemination families and 48 egg donation families were compared with 68 natural conception families on standardized interview and questionnaire measures of the psychological well being...
An increasing number of lesbian women and single heterosexual women are bringing up children with no male involvement. This study follows up to adolescence a sample of children raised in fatherless families from birth or early infancy.
Twenty-five lesbian mother families and 38 families headed by a single heterosexual mother were compared with 38 t...
In recent years, concerns have been raised regarding the potentially negative consequences of gamete donation for parent-child relationships. Findings are presented of a study of families with an infant conceived by gamete donation. Fifty donor insemination families and 51 egg donation families were compared with 80 natural conception families on s...
Findings are presented of a study of families created through surrogacy arrangements. Forty-two surrogacy families were compared with 51 egg-donation families and 80 natural-conception families on standardized interview and questionnaire measures of the psychological well-being of the parents, the quality of parent-child relationships, and infant t...
This study examined the motivations, experiences and psychological consequences of surrogacy for surrogate mothers.
Thirty-four women who had given birth to a surrogate child approximately 1 year previously were interviewed by trained researchers, and the data rated using standardized coding criteria. Information was obtained on: (i) reasons for th...
Findings are presented of a study of families with a child created through a surrogacy arrangement. This paper focuses on the commissioning couples' reports of their experiences.
A total of 42 couples with a 1-year-old child born through surrogacy were assessed using a standardized semi-structured interview. Data were obtained on motivations for su...
The birth of the first 'test-tube' baby in 1978 has led to the creation of family types that would not otherwise have existed.
This paper examines research on the psychological outcomes for parents and children in assisted reproduction families with particular attention to the issues and concerns that have been raised by creating families in this w...
This paper examines the consistency of parent selection procedures, focusing on adoption and embryo donation. It outlines the current methods of selection and their disparities, and considers reasons for these disparities; namely, the intentionality of the parents, the gestational experience, and the technological imperative. This discussion is fol...
Growing public awareness of the use of donor insemination (DI) to enable infertile couples to become parents has been accompanied by increasing concern regarding the potentially negative consequences for family relationships and child development. Findings are presented from a prospective study of the quality of parenting and psychological adjustme...
Findings are presented of the second phase of a European longitudinal study of families created by assisted reproduction. The present investigation reports on data obtained during the child's transition to adolescence.
A total of 102 IVF families, 94 donor insemination (DI) families, 102 adoptive families, and 102 families with a naturally conceive...
The introduction of in vitro fertilization (IVF) at the end of the 20th century constituted a fundamental change in the way in which families could be created, and by the start of the new millennium an increasing number of children have been (and are being) born as a result of this procedure. This article presents findings of a longitudinal study o...
Projects
Project (1)
I'm currently using a mixed methods approach to explore public perceptions of self-harm, along with how such perceptions relate to help-seeking behaviour of people with experience of self-harm. I am interested in how perceptions of public attitudes are related to personal attitudes, and how we can help to improve help-seeking and well-being for individuals struggling with self-harm.
