Abstract

COMPARINI, Ingrid Piccollo; WECHSLER, Solange Muglia  and  MACHADO, Wagner de Lara. Emotional indicators in human figure drawing: investigating evidence of validity. Psicol. teor. prat. [online]. 2017, vol.19, n.3, pp. 256-269. ISSN 1516-3687.  http://dx.doi.org/10.5935/1980-6906/psicologia.v19n3p256-269.

The Human Figure Drawing (HFD) is widely used for emotional assessment of children, but there is little empirical validity of this measure. This study aims at investigating the validity evidence for external criteria of HFD. The sample consisted of 91 children (62.6 % girls), aged between 11 and 12 years, enrolled in elementary institutions. We used the HFD to evaluate emotional difficulties and Youth Self Report (YSR) system in assessing self-perception of psychological difficulties. The Pearson correlations between the two measures were estimated. We have compared the total and specific HFD items with the behavioral dimensions of YSR. We have observed no associations between complete emotional indicators of HFD and the total of YSR. In conclusion, the HFD was not validated as a measure of emotional issues, indicating the need for more studies.

Keywords : psychological assessment; children drawing; emotional difficulties; validity; emotional problems.

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