Abstract: To investigate the psychological characteristics of children with congenital heart disease (CHD). MethodsThe personality, behavior, intelligence quotients (IQ) and social adaptive behavior (SAB) of 113 children suffering from CHD were determined by means of EPQ, CBCL, CRT and SAB scales. One hundred sex-, age-, education- and achievement-matched children with upper respiratory infection were enrolled as controls. ResultsThe N score of the CHD group was obviously higher than that of the control group (P<0.001). More CHD children had abnormal mentality and behavior than the controls (P<0.01). The CHD children had depression, social flinch, physical complaints, assault and violated rules, which were significantly different from the controls. The abnormal rates of mentality and behavior positively correlated with the course of the disease. The mean IQ was not significantly different between the two groups (P>0.05), however, the score of D unit in the CHD group was lower than that in the control group (P<0.05), and the adaptive deviation quotient (ADQ) was also significantly lower in the CHD group than that in the control group, especially the selfcare factor and social/selfdirection factor(P<0.001 or P<0.05). ConclusionChildren suffering from CHD have neurotic characteristics and obvious behavior problems, but their IQ is normal, and their social adaptive behavior, particularly the selfcare factor and social/selfdirection factor are worse than those of the controls.

Key words: Left-to-right shunt，congenital heart disease, Child psychology, Child behavior