Effects of audience types on children’s drawings of emotionally significan human figures for a peer or an adult audience

The present study assessed if children would present different information in drawings of emotion eliciting stimuli when drawing for an adult or a child audience. This question is important as children’s drawings of emotive topics are used in interview and diagnostic settings often without reference to whether children alter their graphic communication depending on the audience of their drawings. Ninety‐five 6‐year‐olds (54 boys and41 girls) were allocated to three groups: the reference group, the child audience group and the adult audience group. The reference group were not informed of an audience and the child and adult audience groups received audience appropriate instructions. All children completed a drawing session where they first drew a neutral uncharacterised figure, followed by drawings of a sad and a happy figure in counterbalanced order. Affect ratings towards the drawn topics were taken immediately after completion of each drawing. The findings demonstrated that children did consider who would be viewing their drawings when communicating affective information and included different features for different audiences within their drawings. The study showed that children altered positive and negative affective elements of their drawings depending upon whether they were drawing for a peer or an adult audience highlighting the need to understand the role of the audience when interpreting children’s drawings for emotional information about the child artists. It is posited that further systematic research is required to continue to examine communicative aspects of children’s drawings

How do children who understand mixed emotion represent them in freehand drawings of themselves and others?

This research is the first to assess children’s representation of mixed emotion using a freehand drawing task. Two hundred and forty-one 5–11-year olds completed a drawing and a colour preference task. Children heard a condition appropriate vignette about themselves or a protagonist designed to evoke mixed emotion, and were asked to draw the self or the protagonist experiencing neutral, happy and sad affect. Children who reported mixed emotions after the story also drew themselves or the protagonist experiencing mixed emotion. For mixed emotion, children used red, green and blue more in drawings of the protagonist, and yellow more in drawings of the self. Interestingly, strategies for mixed emotion drawings were similar to those used for happy drawings; more specifically, in drawings of the self, children were particularly more likely to use smiles (for happy and sad drawings) and fewer frowns. Findings are discussed in relation to self-presentational behaviour

How Do Children Experience Mixed Emotion? Piloting an Analogue Emotion Scale

Adults report more sequential and simultaneous experiences of mixed emotion when using an analogue emotion scale (AES) than when completing rating scales due to the temporal dimension of the AES. Research is beginning to show that children experience mixed emotion and report simultaneous experiences increasingly between 5-7 years. These reports however may misrepresent the type, and underestimate the frequency of, simultaneous experiences due to the limitations of the measures. This research piloted the utility of an adapted AES to assess subjective mixed emotion types in childhood. 55 children (23 girls, 22 boys) aged between 4 years 2 months - 6 years 2 months (X=5 years 3 months) participated in the research. They heard vignettes describing single happy, sad and mixed emotion events in an age and gender matched protagonist and completed AES training and tests measures about the protagonists' experiences. Four different AES mixed emotion types were found highlighting a broader range of mixed emotion experiences than previously found and attesting to the utility of the adapted measure

The effect of affective characterizations on the size of children's drawings

Previous research has yielded conflicting findings about the existence and the direction of the size changes which occur in children's drawings when they are asked to draw topics which have been given an affective characterisation. The present study was designed to investigate whether children scale up the size of drawings of topics which have been given a positive characterisation, and scale down the size of drawings of topics which have been given a negative characterisation. Two hundred and fifty-eight children aged between 4 and 11 years completed three drawings of either a man, a dog or a tree. Each child drew a baseline drawing of a neutrally characterised figure, and two further drawings of a positively and a negatively characterised version of the same figure. It was found that the children drew the positively characterised topics larger than the neutrally characterised topics, and reduced the size of the negatively characterised topics relative to the baseline drawings. These patterns occurred at all ages and with all three drawing topics. Two possible explanations of the findings are discussed: the operation of an appetitive-defensive mechanism in children, and the acquisition of pictorial conventions

Make your move: Exploring a pedagogic toolkit for creative development and global learning in primary education

The purpose of Theatre of the Imagination® is to develop a methodology which helps creative development through design and making in primary education. Objectives supporting this aim include: the development of personal agency through metacognition; the development of creative skills and ideas through practical workshops; and engagement with global learning goals through discussion and storytelling. A series of Constructivist Learning Design workshops have generated tentative findings that suggest design and making can help students to achieve these objectives. An analysis of qualitative data arising from the process of Participatory Action Research indicates that the global citizenship agenda, in tandem with design and making, helps to nurture empathy

Assessing the concordance between child reports and adult observations of single and mixed emotion in children’s drawings of themselves or another child

The present study assessed concordance between child reported and adult observed strategies to depict single and mixed emotion in the same human figure drawings. 205 children (104 boys, 101 girls) aged 6 years 2 months to 8 year 3 months formed two age groups (6 yrs. 2 mo. - 7 yrs.2 mo. and 7 yrs.-3 mo. -8 yrs. - 3 mo.) across two conditions drawing either themselves or another child. They heard vignettes designed to elicit single and mixed emotion and drew a baseline drawing, counterbalanced happy and sad, and a mixed emotion drawing. Categories of children’s verbal reports and adults’ observations were similar with some variation of use by condition, age group and emotion type. Mixed emotion strategies were more similar to those observed and reported in happy drawings. Findings are discussed in relation to a framework theory of art and social display rules

Mixed emotion experiences for self or another person in adolescence

Introduction: This study examined types of reported simultaneous mixed emotion experiences for the first time in adolescence for high and low intensity emotion pairs using an Analogue Emotion Scale which affords the graphing of two opposite valence emotions over time on the same graph. Methods: In a cross sectional design, 163 participants based in schools across the UK formed two age groups representing early and mid-adolescence (12 years, 5 months-16 years, 9 months vs. 16 years, 10 months-18 years, 8 months) across two conditions considering either their own (n=83) or another child’s (n= 80) emotional experience divided equally for high (n=80) or low (n= 83) intensity mixed emotion pairs presented in vignettes about themselves or another person. They were seen individually and completed an emotion presence interview and an Analogue Emotion Scale about the emotions experienced in the condition appropriate vignette. Results: Participants reported mixed emotions both sequentially and simultaneously. In particular we found that children showed that others experience emotions in a more sequential manner, while they themselves would experience more emotions in a highly simultaneous way. Emotion experience was different depending on the emotion pair and age group. Conclusions: Adolescents’ subjective mixed emotion experiences vary by intensity and patterns of simultaneity over time. Findings are discussed in relation to an evaluative space model of mixed emotion and applications of the AES with adolescent populations

The effects of task explicitness to communicate on the expressiveness of children’s drawings of different topics

Effects of asking children to communicate through their drawings have been investigated using animate rather than inanimate drawing topics. The present study investigated the impact of a communication context on children’s drawings of topics with contrasting animism. Three hundred and twenty two children, 156 boys and 166 girls aged 6-11 years were allocated to two conditions. The communication condition (n=161) involved instructions to communicate emotion and the reference condition (n=161) gave no instruction to communicate. Children drew either houses or human figures (House, N=160, Human figures, N=162), producing freehand drawings of the topic; a baseline version followed by a happy and a sad version in counterbalanced order. Expressive content in the communication condition was greater than in the reference condition and impacted differentially on the strategies used between the houses and human figures drawings. The findings are considered with respect to the cue dependency model and framework theory of art

The influence of social status and social economic status on adolescent intrinsic motivation for physical activity

Purpose: Adopting a socio-ecological perspective, this study assessed the influence of social status and social economic status on adolescent intrinsic motivation for physical activity. A social network measure of social status was employed which permits analysis of both popularity and relatedness. It was predicted that higher social status would predict higher levels of self-determined motivation (intrinsic) for physical activity, that increasing age and social status would moderate this relationship and that boys with higher social status would show higher levels of intrinsic motivation for physical activity. Methods: One hundred and nine (59 males and 50 females) participants aged 11 years 1 month to 16 years 9 months (M=13 years 5 months) were recruited from schools across the South East of the UK. They completed measures of social economic status, self-determined motivation (BREQ-2) towards physical activity participation and ratings of school peer’s social status (generating popularity and relatedness scores). Results: Hierarchical multiple regression showed that males displayed higher self-determined motivation towards physical activity participation than females; social status was not a significant predictor. Age, gender and social economic status did not predict motivation for physical activity. Social status, specifically popularity, did however correlate with participation for the older participants aged 15 years 2 months to 16 years 9 months. Qualitative, visual interpretation of the social networks of popularity and relatedness showed a mixed influence on motivation across individuals. For example, females with higher and lower popularity and relatedness had higher and lower self-determined motivation respectively to participate in physical activity. Conclusions: In partial support of a socio-ecological framework, age related to increased participation in physical activity. The mixed individual findings regarding the influence of popularity and relatedness in relation to age and social economic status on self-determined motivation to participate in physical activity suggest the importance of assessing the interplay of multiple socio-ecological factors using inclusive social network analysis on an individual basis in relation to understanding and promoting intrinsic rather than regulated motivation towards physical activity

Theatre of the imagination: Blueprint exchange

‘Blueprint Exchange’ is the catalyst for a nascent network of children and teachers who are interested in sharing stories and artefacts, related to the UN global goals, in order to foster critical thinking, creative skills and compassion. My research brings together Participatory Action Research and Constructivist Learning Design to help build personal agency and metacognition. Learning methods transferred from art and design education were successfully applied in primary schools through a series of practical workshops. The toolkit was adopted and successfully integrated into whole-class practice by primary school teachers in the UK and India. Children shared lived experiences by articulating tacit knowledge through modelmaking and video production across geographic space. Transition Design provides a framework for social transformation by encouraging children to construct a vision of what might be possible in future. ‘Blueprint Exchange’ workshops have produced compelling insights that suggest art and design in mainstream primary education has the potential to impact upon cognitive acceleration. Translocated Practice with India and Mexico has helped to build a creative toolkit for teachers and children across continents