An analysis of the emotional indicators in children's human figure drawings was done in order to investigate variables that could affect their prevalence. The sample consisted of 2,206 human figure drawings made by children (695 girls and 408 boys), aged between 5-12 years old, with no apparent clinical disturbances. Scoring systems by Naglieri, McNeish and Bardos (emotional assessment) and Wechsler (cognitive assessment) were employed. The analysis of variance demonstrated significant effects (p< .01) of children's sex and age; type of figure drawn; type of school attended; and interaction of sex, age and figure type on emotional as well as on cognitive scores. Emotional scores were negatively related (p< .01) to cognitive scores. Different cut-off scores are proposed to provide an adequate psychodiagnostic assessment.
Test; Children; Human Figure; Assessment; Emotional Problems
