S. S. BASGUL ET AL.
380
children. The first one is using them for a rough analysis of the
child’s cognitive development as with other visual-motor tests
(Brown, 1990; Cherney ve ark, 2006; Koppitz, 1968). The sec-
ond use is to obtain information on the emotional structure and
or current emotional status of the child (Catte & Cox, 1999;
Matto, 2002, Tharinger & Stark, 1990). The presence of any
psychopathology in the children was not found to affect draw-
ing age. Conduct disorder and major depressive disorder were
found to be significantly higher in children who did not draw. It
might be useful, especially for the clinician, to consider this
finding in clinical application. The findings of the present study
that children with some psychological disorders did not accept
to draw, and that children who have habits that might appear
secondary to inadequate stimulation like masturbation and fin-
ger sucking have lower drawing age support the notion that
drawing is a useful assessment tool for children. There are other
articles on the drawing in children with diffuse developmental
disorder (Evans & Dubowski, 2001; Lee & Hobson, 2006; Ste-
fanatou, 2008). We did not come across any information on
when the drawing activity was held or whether any group re-
fused to draw in these articles. Children with this diagnosis did
not accept to draw in our study. This may indicate that trying to
get children who find it difficult to form social relationships
may not be appropriate. However, we do not know whether
these children accepted to draw in future interviews due to the
design of our study. New drawing studies with these children
could use a study design that also included longitudinal fol-
low-up of children who accepted and did not accept to draw to
determine which visit may be best to use a test such as drawing
evaluation.
Inadequate distribution of sample between field and clinical
samples and small sample size might be considered among the
limitations of the present study. However, when sample size is
evaluated, the fact that clinical interviews were conducted with
all children and their families who participated in the study
should be considered.
Conclusion
A literature review indicates that there is no other study on
the drawing age of children, sociodemographic and psycho-
pathological correlates, accepting to draw and its association
with psychological disorders. Considering the importance of
drawing as an assessment tool for health care professionals,
further studies with larger sample size and more variables are
warranted to generalize assessments of children in the field of
drawing and to utilize findings in clinical studies.
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