In the present study, we examined the family drawings of preschool-aged children from three cultural contexts that represented different aspects of autonomy and relatedness. The final sample consisted of 53 children from urban Western middle-class families from Osnabrueck, Germany; 63 children from rural Cameroonian Nso farming families; and 59 children from urban middle-class families from Ankara, Turkey. The children were of similar age and did not differ in basic drawing abilities. The family drawings varied with cultural context and the respective orientation toward autonomy and relatedness, specifically in regard to the number and position of family members, the depicted absolute and relative size of family members, the details of facial features, and the emotional expression. Additionally, the positioning and spatial arrangement of family members on the paper can be linked to the children’s familiarity with external frames of reference in drawings.
AllikJ.LaakT. (1985). The head is smaller than the body: But how does it join on? In FreemanN. H.CoxM. (Eds.), Visual order. The nature and development of pictorial representation (pp. 266-286). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
2.
AndersonS. B. (1995). Social scaling in children’s family drawings: A comparative study in three cultures. Child Study Journal, 25(2), 97-122.
3.
ArnaudP. (1981). Expression graphique et milieu culturel: À propos des dessins réalisés par les jeunes Kurumba [Graphical expression and cultural milieu: Speaking of children’s drawings of Kurumba]. Journal des Africanistes, 51(1-2), 265-276.
4.
BayraktarR. (1985). Cross-cultural analysis of drawing errors. In FreemanN. H.CoxM. (Eds.), Visual order. The nature and development of pictorial representation (pp. 333-355). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
5.
BerryJ. (1976). Human ecology and cognitive style: Comparative studies in cultural and psychological adaptation. New York: Sage/Halsted.
6.
Billmann-MahechaE. (2010). Auswertung von Zeichnungen [Analysis of drawings]. In MeyG.MruckK. (Eds.), Handbuch qualitative forschung in der psychologie (pp. 707-722). Wiesbaden, Germany: VS Verlag.
7.
BombiA. S.PintoG.CannoniE. (2007). Pictorial assessment of interpersonal relationships (PAIR). An analytic system for understanding children’s drawings. Firenze, Italy: Firenze University Press.
8.
BuckalewL. W.BellA. (1985). Effects of colors and mood in the drawings of young children. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 61, 689-690.
9.
BurkittE.BarrettM.DavisA. (2003). The effect of affective characterizations on the size of children’s drawings. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 21, 565-584.
10.
BurkittE.BarrettM.DavisA. (2004). The effect of affective characterizations on the use of size and colour in drawings produced by children in absence of a model. Educational Psychology, 24(3), 315-343.
11.
ChaudharyN. (2004). Listening to culture: Constructing reality from everyday talk. New Delhi, India: Sage.
12.
CherneyI. D.SeiwertC.DickeyT. M.FlichtbeilJ. D. (2006). Children’s drawings: A mirror to their minds. Educational Psychology, 26(1), 127-142.
13.
CoxM. (1993). Children’s drawings of the human figure. Hove, UK: Lawrence Erlbaum.
14.
CoxM. (2005). The pictorial world of the child. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
15.
CoxM.WrightR. (2000). Relative heights of males and females in children’s drawings. International Journal of Early Years Education, 8(3), 217-226.
16.
DasenP. R.MishraR. C. (2010). Development of geocentric spatial language and cognition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
17.
DemuthC.KellerH.YovsiR. D. (2011). Cultural models in communication with infants: Lessons from Kikaikelaki, Cameroon and Muenster, Germany. Journal of Early Childhood Research. Advance online publication. doi:10.1177/1476718X11403993.
18.
DennisW. (1960). The human figure drawings of Bedouins. The Journal of Social Psychology, 52, 209-219.
19.
DennisW. (1966). Group values through children’s drawings. New York: John Wiley.
20.
DeregowskiJ. B. (1989). Real space and represented space: Cross-cultural perspectives. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 12, 51-119.
21.
FernándezI.PáezD.CarreraP.SánchezF.CandiaJ. L. (2000). Differences between cultures in emotional verbal and non-verbal reaction. Piscothema, 12, 83-92.
22.
GernhardtA.RübelingH.KellerH.BöningM. (2011). Children’s family drawings: A cross cultural perspective. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology, Istanbul, Turkey.
23.
GolombC. (2004). The child’s creation of a pictorial world. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
24.
GoodnowJ. J.FriedmanS. (1972). Orientation in children’s human figure drawings: An aspect of graphic language. Developmental Psychology, 7(1), 10-16.
25.
HaunD. B. (2011). Memory for body movements in Namibian hunter-gatherer children. Journal of Cognitive Education and Psychology, 10(1), 56-62.
26.
HaunD. B.RapoldC. J. (2009). Variation in memory for body movements across cultures. Current Biology, 19(23), 1068-1069.
27.
HetheringtonM.FrankieG. (1967). Effects of parental dominance, warmth and conflict on imitation in children. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 6, 119-125.
28.
KağitçibaşiC. (2007). Family, self, and human development across cultures: Theory and applications. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
29.
KapschL. A.KrugerA. C. (2004). Changes in figure drawing following kinesthetic experience. Visual Arts Research, 30(2), 62-74.
30.
KellerH. (2007). Cultures of infancy. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
31.
KellerH. (2008). Culture and biology. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2(2), 668-681.
32.
KellerH. (2011). Autonomy and relatedness revisited: Cultural manifestations of universal human needs. Child Developmental Perspectives. Advance online publishing. doi: 10.1111/j.1750-8606.2011.00208.x
33.
KellerH.BorkeJ.YovsiR.LohausA.JensenH. (2005). Cultural orientations and historical changes as predictors of parenting behavior. International Journal of Behavior and Development, 29, 229-237.
34.
KellerH.LammB.AbelsM.YovsiR.BorkeJ.. . . ChaudharyN. (2006). Cultural models, socialization goals, and parenting ethnotheories: A multicultural analysis. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 37(2), 155-172.
35.
KellerH.OttoH. (2009). The cultural socialization of emotion regulation during infancy. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 40(6), 996-1011.
36.
KellerH.OttoH. (2011). Different faces of autonomy. In ChenX.RubinK. H. (Eds.), Socioemotional development in cultural context (pp. 164-185). New York: Guilford.
KrampenM. (1984). Children’s drawings as compositions of graphemes. A cross-cultural comparison. Visual Art Research, 10(1), 7-12.
39.
Lange-KüttnerC. (1997). Development of size modification of human figure drawings in spatial axes systems of varying complexity. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 66, 264-278.
40.
Lange-KüttnerC. (2008). Figures in and out of context: Absent, simple, complex, and harved spatial fields. In Lange-KüttnerC.VinterA. (Eds.), Drawing and the non-verbal mind. A life-span perceptive (pp. 199-220). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
41.
Lange-KüttnerC. (2009). Habitual size and projective size: The logic of spatial systems in children’s drawings. Developmental Psychology, 4, 913-927.
42.
La VoyS. K.BrauchA. A.LuxenbergT. M.NofsingerC. C. (2001). A cross-cultural analysis from Japan and the United States. School Psychology International, 22(1), 53-63.
43.
LeVineR. (1974). Parental goals: A cross-cultural view. Teachers College Record, 76, 226-239.
44.
LeVineR. A.MillerP. M.RichmanA. L.LeVineS. (1996). Education and mother-infant interaction. A Mexican case study. In HarknessS.SuperC. M. (Eds.), Parents’ cultural belief systems (pp. 254-288). New York: Guilford.
45.
MacDonaldK. B. (1992). Warmth as a developmental construct: An evolutionary analysis. Child Development, 63, 753-773.
46.
MarkusH.KitayamaS. (1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion and motivation. Psychological Review, 98, 224-253.
47.
MatsumotoD. (1991). Cultural influences on facial expression of emotion. Southern Communication Journal, 56, 128-137.
48.
Meili-DworetzkiG. (1981). Kulturelle Bedingungen des Zeichenstils und seines Wandels [Cultural conditions of drawing style and its change]. In FoppaK.GronerR. (Eds.), Kognitive strukturen und ihre entwicklung (pp. 80-118). Bern, Germany: Huber.
49.
Meili-DworetzkiG. (1982). Spielarten des menschenbildes: Ein vergleich der menschzeichnungen japanischer und schweizerischer kinder [Varieties of concepts of man: A comparison of human figure drawings of Japanese and Swiss children]. Bern, Germany: Huber.
50.
MesquitaB. (2007). Emotions are culturally situated. Social Science Information, 46, 410-415.
51.
NsamenangA. B.LambM. E. (1994). Socialization of Nso children in the Bamenda grassfields of North-West Cameroon. In GreenfieldP. M.CockingR. R. (Eds.), Cross-cultural roots of minority child development (pp. 133-146). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
52.
PagetG. W. (1932). Some drawings of men and women made by children of certain non-European races. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 62, 127-144.
53.
PayneM. A. (1996). Some effects of sex, age, and household structure on family drawings of Barbardian children. The Journal of Social Psychology, 136(5), 567-578.
54.
PiagetJ.InhelderB. (1956). The child’s conception of space. London: Routledge.
55.
PintoG.BombiA. S. (2008). Children’s drawings of friendship and family relationships in different cultures. In MilbrathC.TrautnerH. M. (Eds.), Children’s understanding and production of pictures, drawings, and art (pp. 121-154). Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Hogrefe.
56.
RichterH.- G. (2001). Kinderzeichnungen interkulturell [Children’s drawings between cultures]. Münster, Germany: Lit. Verlag.
57.
RoeA.BridgesL.DunnJ.O’ConnerT. (2006). Young children’s representations of their families: A longitudinal follow-up study of family drawings by children living in different family settings. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 30(6), 529-536.
58.
RübelingH.KellerH.YovsiR.LenkM.SchwarzerS.KühneN. (2011). Children’s drawings of the self as an expression of cultural conceptions of the self. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 42(3), 406-424.
59.
SchoenemackersH. (1996). Die menschzeichnung dreijähriger kinder [Human figure drawing in three years old children]. Frankfurt, Germany: Lang.
60.
SchützN. (1990). Die raumdarstellung in der kinderzeichnung [The depiction of space in children’s drawings]. Essen, Germany: Die Blaue Eule.
61.
SilkA. M. J.ThomasG. V. (1986). Development and differentiation in children’s figure drawings. British Journal of Psychology, 77, 399-410.
62.
SilkA. M. J.ThomasG. V. (1988). The development of size scaling in children’s figure drawings. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 6, 285-299.
63.
SuperC. M.HarknessS. (1986). The developmental niche: A conceptualization at the interface of child and culture. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 9, 545-569.
64.
VygotskyL. S.ColeM. (1978). Mind in society. The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
65.
WangQ.DoanS. N.SongQ. (2010). Talking about internal states in mother-child reminiscing influences children’s self-representations: A cross-cultural study. Cognitive Development, 25(4), 380-393.
66.
WhitingB. (1963). Six cultures: Studies of child rearing. New York: Wiley.
67.
YovsiR. D. (2003). An investigation of breastfeeding and mother-infant interactions in the face of cultural taboos and belief systems: The case of Nso and Fulani mothers and their infants of 3-5 months of age in Mbvem Subdivision of the Northwest Province of Cameroon. Münster, Germany: LIT Verlag.
