Behavioural and emotional problems in children and adolescents with congenital heart disease

Abstract

Behavioural/emotional problems were assessed at least nine years after surgical correction for congenital heart disease (ConHD) in childhood. Parents of 144 10-15-year-old ConHD-children completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and 179, 11-17-year-old, ConHD-adolescents completed the Youth Self-Report (YSR). On the CBCL and YSR ConHD-children and adolescents obtained significantly higher problem scores than same-aged peers from normative reference groups. No significant differences were found between problem scores for different cardiac diagnostic groups. A negative correlation was found between CBCL total problem scores and IQ-scores of ConHD-children; for YSR total problem scores no such relationship was found.