Drawing techniques as tools for the evaluation of scholastic integration and emotional components in primary and secondary school: A cross-sectional study
Introduction: In the last decades, many studies have emphasized emotion’s
role in psycho-educational processes during childhood, such as scholastic
integration. Emotional variables in childhood can be assessed through
projective graphic techniques, as they allow children to use kinetic components
of the draws to communicate emotions.
Method: 1.757 couple of draws were collected, from primary school children
(N = 1.270; F = 643 [50.6%]; Age = 8.6; SD = 1.31) and secondary school children
(N = 487; F = 220 [45.2%]; Age = 11.72; SD = 0.70) and from eight schools in
Sicily and over 60 different classrooms. The Drawn Stories Technique and the
Classroom Draw were used to assess children’s current emotional state and
scholastic integration.
Results: Pearson’s correlation showed significant relationships between
the Drawn Stories Technique and both sex and age. In contrast, Classroom
Drawing total score showed a significant relationship with the female sex but
no significant relationship with age. Linear regression analysis, including sex
and age as independent variables, showed that sex is a significant predictor
of Negative Outcomes of the Drawn Stories Technique, while no effect of age
was detected.
Discussion: These findings showed that adequate attention is needed to the
learners’ emotional-affective world that influences their relationships and
their vision within the class group. Although the drawing techniques alone
seem to be not as such sufficient to explain children’s individual differences in
the classroom on the whole, they could be helpful for the teacher to facilitate
dialogues with children, modulate didactical materials, and detect and prevent
some problems in group class functioning