Interpretation of Studies of Ethnic Identity: Draw-A-Person as a Measure of Ethnic Identity

Abstract

Draw-A-Person was used to examine ethnic identity in 129 Nigerian (Yoruba) school children. That the children expressed low ethnic identity was based on their general avoidance of dark colors when coloring the skin. These findings were compared to those obtained from studies conducted on black children in the USA with the conclusion that the racial context of the study may affect interpretations of data.

College Students’ Images of Mathematicians and Mathematical Careers

“…Similarly, previous research suggests that when asked to "draw a person," black children do not necessarily draw a black person [31,37]. For example, using our coding classification, only 15 out of 157 (9.6%) of black children in Schofield's study drew a black person, which is similar to the numbers in our study for drawing a mathematician.…”

“…The one individual who identified as "other", shaded their mathematician yellow/orange. Based on our interpretation, drawings with no shading could be classified as Caucasian (as was also done by Pfeffer [31]) and brown shading could be classified as African American or Multi-racial. It is hard to determine what yellow/orange shading is meant to represent, but given that mostly Caucasian participants chose to shade their mathematician as yellow/orange, it is possible that this, too, was intended to represent a Caucasian mathematician.…”

Perceptions of Dress Style in Some Nigerian Children's Drawings

“…Sex identification, sex typing, and sexual differentiation are aspects of socialization that lend themselves to drawing analysis (Rabin & Limuaco, 1959;Swensen, 1968). Ethnic identification has also been measured by human figure drawings (Pfeffer, 1984;Schofield, 1978). Social and cultural values reflected in children's drawings have been analyzed in various cultures (Dennis, 1966;Eya, 1984;Gardiner, 1972Gardiner, , 1974Meili-Dworetzki, 1982).…”