Drawings of Emotionally Characterised Figures by Children from Different Educational Backgrounds

Abstract

Previous research has shown that children systematically alter the size and colour of their drawings in response to the emotional character of the figures which they draw. However, these findings have been demonstrated only with children receiving mainstream Western education. This experiment was designed to investigate whether children receiving a different kind of education also use scaling and colour differentially for depicting figures of contrasting emotional significance. 76 children, 44 children from mainstream schools (21 boys, 23 girls) and 32 children from Steiner schools (15 boys, 17 girls) were divided into two age groups, with 38 children in the younger age group (mean age 4 years 7 months) and 38 in the older age group (mean age 6 years 8 months). All children completed three drawings of differentially characterized human figures: a neutral, a happy, and a sad figure. Children from the mainstream schools drew larger figures overall, but educational background did not interact with the specific emotional character of the figures in producing these scaling changes. However, there were differences between the two educational groups in relation to the colours used for the negatively characterised figures. The findings are discussed in terms of the need to further understand the role of the educational system in mediating children's depictions of emotional character in their drawings.

Finnish and English children's color use to depict affectively characterized figures

“…However, the majority of claims to the effect that colour choice is emotionally significant in children's drawings have been based on professional observation rather than on formal experimentation (Hammer, 1997;Malchiodi, 1998;McNiff, 1992). Yet, recent experimental research has addressed previous methodological concerns (see Burkitt et al, 2003bBurkitt et al, , 2004Burkitt et al, , 2005 and shown that children systematically alter their choice of specific colours depending on the emotional descriptions of the figures and the way they felt about specific colours.…”

“…Recent systematic research has only sampled children from across England (e.g. Burkitt et al, 2003bBurkitt et al, , 2004Burkitt et al, , 2005 and has not included a direct comparison between two cultural groups in one study.…”

“…Burkitt, Barrett & Davis, 2003a, 2004Craddick, 1961Craddick, , 1963Koppitz, 1966Koppitz, , 1968Machover, 1949), through the spatial organisation of figures in their drawings (Bombi & Pinto, 1994) and through differences in the details children use to show positive or negative characters (e.g. Burkitt, Barrett, & Davis, 2004, 2005.…”

“…English children were selected as a control group as previous research showing that children represent positive topics with favoured colours and less positive topics with less favoured colours (Burkitt et al, 2003b(Burkitt et al, , 2004(Burkitt et al, , 2005 was based on English samples. Finnish children were chosen as a comparative group as they have been found to offer the most differentiated affective associations of colours from a sample of twenty-three countries (Adams & Osgood, 1973).…”

Understanding Children’s Paintings in Psychological Counselling with Children

“…At the base of having resort to painting in professional media lies the opinion of "Emotional and communicative components are included in the drawing". Several studies have been conducted in order to prove that child's personality and state of mind at that moment can be understood on the basis of child's drawings and that subject's drawings of which are made by child may express several meanings for children (Burkitt, Barret and Davis, 2005).…”