Social competence and emotional/behavioral problems in children who have undergone solid organ transplantation

This study aims to assess social competence and emotional/behavioral problems and to examine the influence of some clinical and socio-demographic variables on psychological adaptation in transplanted children. Parents of 48 transplanted children and 88 healthy children aged 5-12 completed the Child Behavior Checklist 6-18 (CBCL) which measures social competence and emotional/behavioral problems, and a group of clinical and socio-demographic data. Findings showed that transplanted boys presented significantly less social competence than healthy boys. In contrast, transplanted girls revealed significantly less social competence, especially in school activities, more internalizing behavior problems, particularly in anxiety/depression, and aggressive behavior than healthy girls. Hierarchical regression analysis demonstrated that rejection problems are significant to explain somatic complaints. Our data suggest the importance of some clinical variables on psychological adaptation in children who have undergone organ transplantation.