Toward the Development of a Rational Scale in the use of Human-Figure Drawings as a Kindergarten Screening Measure

Abstract

The Draw-A-Person Test was individually administered to 120 kindergartners from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, ranging in age from 4 yr. and 10 mo. to 6 yr. and 4 mo. This study was conducted to validate and expand Goldman and Warren's earlier work (1976) on the development of a rational scale for use as a kindergarten screening measure. Correlational analyses corroborate the earlier findings that body-part omissions are the most predictive items of emotional high risk. Factor analyses of the current data also replicate earlier findings in which two underlying cohesive factors emerged. The first factor has high loadings on peripheral body-part omissions; the second factor has high loadings on central body-part omissions. The results suggest that an interchangeable number of body-part omissions together, rather than any one item, predict high emotional risk. Structural and content characteristics do not contribute significantly to the development of a kindergarten screening measure.