Objective  To explore heterogeneous subtypes of psychological and behavioral adaptation characteristics of pediatric recipients after liver transplantation and the characteristics differences of different types of children after liver transplantation.

  Methods  Seven hundred and forty-one children who underwent living-related liver transplantation were enrolled. The self-designed general information questionnaire, Chinese version of 5-Item World Health Organization Well-Being Index (WHO-5) and the parent-report version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) were filled out by their guardians. The scores of five dimensions of SDQ were used as the manifest variables of the model. The classification model of psychological and behavioral adaptation characteristics of pediatric recipients after liver transplantation was constructed by latent profile analysis. The latent categories of psychological and behavioral adaptation characteristics of pediatric recipients after liver transplantation were analyzed. The influencing factors of latent categories were analyzed by univariate analysis and logistic regression model.

  Results  There were three latent categories of psychological and behavioral adaptation characteristics of pediatric recipients after liver transplantation, including peer communication problem group (n=302), psychological and behavioral adaptation group (n=145) and psychological and behavioral adjustment difficulty group (n=294). The first two groups were merged into the psychological and behavioral health group (n=447), which had significant differences in the five dimensions and the total score of difficulties of SDQ compared with the psychological and behavioral adjustment difficulty group (n=294) (all P<0.001). Logistic regression analysis showed that age≤5 years old, primary disease of non-cholestatic liver disease, stem family were the risk factors for psychological and behavioral adjustment difficulties in pediatric recipients after liver transplantation. Female gender, high education levels of parents and high WHO-5 score of guardians were the protective factors for psychological and behavioral adjustment difficulties in pediatric recipients after liver transplantation (all P<0.05).

  Conclusions  The psychological and behavioral adaptation characteristics of pediatric recipients after liver transplantation are heterogeneous. Medical staff should pay extensive attention to different characteristics of pediatric recipients after liver transplantation with different psychological and behavioral adaptation categories and adopt targeted screening and intervention strategies, aiming to improve psychological and behavioral adaptation outcomes of pediatric recipients after liver transplantation.