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Behavior and socioemotional functioning in 9-18-year-old children born after in vitro fertilization

Karin Wagenaar1, Mirjam M van Weissenbruch, Dirk L Knol

  • 1Department of Medical Psychology and Institute for Clinical and Experimental Neurosciences, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. k.wagenaar@vumc.nl

Fertility and Sterility
|November 1, 2008
PubMed

Insights

Children conceived via in vitro fertilization (IVF) show normal psychosocial well-being. While parents reported fewer externalizing behaviors, teachers noted more withdrawn/depressed behavior in IVF children, warranting further investigation.

Area of Science:

  • Reproductive medicine
  • Child psychology
  • Developmental pediatrics

Background:

  • In vitro fertilization (IVF) may influence fetal programming, potentially affecting children's physical and behavioral development.
  • Parental factors associated with fertility issues can confound studies on IVF children's outcomes.
  • This study controls for parental factors to isolate the effects of IVF on child functioning.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate the psychosocial well-being of children aged 9-18 conceived via IVF.
  • To compare the behavior and socioemotional functioning of IVF children with spontaneously conceived controls from parents with prior fertility issues.
  • To investigate the specific role of IVF in children's developmental outcomes.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized Child Behavior CheckList (CBCL) parent reports and Teacher Report Form (TRF) teacher reports.
  • Included 139 children conceived via IVF and 143 control children.
  • Assessed children aged 9-18 years, with mean ages of 13.60 (IVF) and 13.51 (controls).

Main Results:

  • Overall behavior and socioemotional functioning scores for IVF children were within the normal range.
  • Parents reported fewer total problems, externalizing behaviors, and specific syndromes (thought problems, attention problems, aggression, rule-breaking) in IVF children compared to controls.
  • Teacher reports showed a trend towards lower externalizing behavior scores in IVF children, but a higher prevalence of withdrawn/depressed behavior in the borderline/clinical range.

Conclusions:

  • Children conceived via IVF demonstrate generally normal psychosocial functioning.
  • Parental reports of reduced externalizing behaviors in IVF children are notable.
  • Teacher-reported increases in withdrawn/depressed behavior among IVF children require further research to understand underlying mechanisms.
Abstract

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