The social adaptation of children born after ICSI compared with IVF-conceived children: A study from China

Abstract

We compared the social adjustment among Chinese children born after intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) vs those after in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and identify factors related to the adjustment. The social adaptation of 86 ICSI and 165 IVF conceived children of 4–6 years of age was assessed using the Infants–Junior Middle School Students’ Social-Life Abilities Scale. There was no significant difference between the ICSI and IVF-conceived groups on the item of communication, self-dependence, locomotion, work skills, socialisation, self-management and total scores. Compared with routine IVF, ICSI does no harm to the social adaptation of children conceived through this technology.

Keywords::

• Child
• ICSI
• IVF
• social adaptation

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the children and the parents included in the research. The research was funded by National 973 Program (No. 2007cb948104) and Health Bureau of ZheJiang (No. 2008A106).

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.