This study employs the scale of Value from Pictorial Assessment of Interpersonal Relationships (PAIR) to investigate the links between the importance attributed by primary students to their teachers ...and two independent measures of scholastic wellbeing, provided by teachers and parents. During middle childhood, the teacher is one of the most significant adults with whom children interact daily; a student–teacher relationship warm and free from excessive dependency and conflict is very important for children wellbeing; however, children’s recognition of teacher importance as an authority figure has been seldom studied. Children aged 7–11 years were individually asked to draw themselves and one of their teachers in two situations (relational Wellbeing and relational Distress); the scale of Value from PAIR was used as a proxy of the importance attributed to teachers in each situation. Teachers completed the Student–Teacher Relationship Scale for Closeness, Conflict, and Dependency of each child; parents answered two items about their children’s School Adjustment. All the study variables were firstly analyzed to check gender and age differences. Boys valorized more than girls the teacher’s figure; however, teachers perceived more Closeness and less Conflict with girls. Dependency and Conflict decreased with age, as well as (albeit slightly) School Adjustment. To assess the links between pictorial valorization of the teacher in Wellbeing and Distress and teachers’ and parents’ evaluations, four separate hierarchical regressions were performed, namely, Closeness, Dependency, Conflict, and School Adjustment, controlling children’s sex and age. The teacher’s pictorial Value in Wellbeing appeared to be related to Closeness and School Adjustment, while a negative relationship emerged between Value and Dependency in Distress. In sum, the recognition of the teacher’s role as an authority figure does not hinder a warm student–teacher relationship and impacts positively on school adjustment. In situations of Distress, dependent pupils showed a diminished appreciation of the teacher’s importance, possibly as a result of a defensive stance.
Differences in drawing development are conditioned by genetics, environment and individuality of children. Therefore, it is exciting to observe the drawing development in children, who are raised in ...the same environment and have a similar genetic basis, that is in twins, triplets, and so forth. In the study, we were interested in the similarities and differences in the drawing development of the triplets, two of which were identical twins (B1 and B2) and one was non-identical (A), and whether the characteristics of the drawing appear more congruently between B1 and B2 than with A. We proposed two hypotheses: H1: There are more similarities in drawings between identical twins (B1 vs B2) than between identical and non-identical one (A vs B1 and A vs B2); H2: The differences between non-identical and identical triplets are less pronounced at the beginning of the drawing development (in doodle phase) and become more distinctive in later development, in drawing of figure and space. We analysed 123 drawings that the triplets (41 drawings of each triplet) drew from 1 to 12 years of age at the same time and on the same topic. The results of our research have shown that both hypotheses can be confirmed. On the general level, there are more similarities in drawing between identical twins compared to non-identical ones; and the differences and similarities become more distinctive throughout the development, especially in figure drawing and in the depiction of space.
Triplets; Identical twins; Non-identical twins; Drawing development; Children drawing.
Food insecurity and hunger, which are on the rise in affluent Western countries, may negatively affect children's physical, social, emotional and cognitive functioning. Although there is growing ...evidence of the high rate of food insecurity and hunger among Bedouin families and their children in Israel, little is known about how the children themselves experience the problem and how it impacts their life. The present study sought to explore and clarify children's experience of food insecurity. The research population included forty-two Israeli Bedouin impoverished children, aged nine to eleven. The analysis of children's drawing was chosen as the research instrument because it enabled psychological as well as phenomenological insight into the children's experience of food insecurity. This study, however, goes beyond the use of art to assess children's emotional state, because enabling the children to draw food insecurity gave them a strong and communicative public voice of their own. After the study had been completed, the drawings also proved useful in efforts to promote awareness about the personal, community, cultural and social dimensions of the problem and the need for community action and policy change to mitigate and eliminate it.
A recent study of a large sample of children living in London demonstrated that their imagination-based self-portraits exhibited systematic drawing biases such as depicting the head too round and the ...eyes too far up the head. The present study aimed to replicate and extend on these findings in a sample of self-portraits produced by children from all around the world to determine if these drawing biases are universal or culturally specific to children living in Western Europe. Developmentally, children ranging in age from 3 to 11 years old were observed to draw the head too round and the eyes too high up the head. Children ranging in age from 3 to 8 years old, but not children ranging in age from 9 to 11 years old, were observed to draw the mouth too high up the head. As the children grew in age from 3 to 11 years old, these biases persisted, but there were linear trends for the biases of drawing the eyes and mouth too high up the head to become less exaggerated with increasing age. Geographically, children living in Africa, Asia, Europe, and South/Central America were all observed to exhibit these three systematic biases, indicating that these are universal drawing biases not affected by the geographic location the children were raised in.
Praise for the First Edition: `This is a fascinating book that clearly demonstrates the importance of such early artwork. It is richly provided with relevant photographs and each phase of development ...is clearly explained ... It really is a "must read" for anyone working with young children! - Montessori International, Vol. 10 No. 3 Autumn 2000 This book has been revised to reflect recent developments in early childhood education, in developmental psychology and in our understanding of children′s development in the arts. The author shows how this new model of children′s development in visual representation has important implications for education. This is a revised edition of Helping Children to Draw and Paint: Children and Visual Representation, originally published in 1994.
This study aims to determine the way of children's comprehension of visual culture through the pictures they draw. For this purpose, the children between 7-12 year olds will be observed to state ...which visual media elements they are affected, what kids of pictures they draw, and their sensual and intellectual reactions about the visual media element affected. The research conducted by 102 students ranging from 7 to 12 year olds, attending to the first stage of primary education and representing middle socio- economic level. To determine the effects of modern visual media on children, they are asked to select a topic and draw a picture related to the elements of visual media which they have seen and affected previously. Pictures was examined with the help of content analysis technique. Results of the study are oriented to mention that children use digital images- produced by television and computer- in their pictures more than printed images. It was observed that children had internalized those images as if there weren’t a screen, but they did not comment on the images.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the measures to face it have placed children and their caregivers in front of many challenges that could represent sources of stress. This work aims to explore the point of ...view of children through drawing, as a spontaneous means of expression, relating it to parents’ perceptions of children’s difficulties, strengths, and mentalization skills. The sample consists of 18 children (mean age = 8.22, SD = 1.79). Parents were asked to complete: a socio-demographic questionnaire with information on the impact of COVID-19 on the family, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, and the Everyday Mindreading Scale. Children were asked to draw three moments: “Before” the pandemic, “During” the lockdown, and “After,” when the COVID-19 will be passed. The drawings were coded by constructing a content and expressive analysis grid, adapting coding systems found in the literature. Data were collected at the beginning of the summer of 2020, just after the first lockdown period (from March to May 2020 in Italy). The results of the present work are in line with previous studies that reported experiences of wellbeing and tranquility of children in time spent at home with family during the pandemic. From the drawings emerges that children feel sufficiently able to master the situation, as reflected by including themselves in drawings and providing many details of the house in “During” drawings. The literature also reports a feeling of sadness/loneliness caused by the lack of friends, an element that we also find in the tendency to represent friends significantly more in the drawings concerning the future. Some contents of drawings (inclusion of friends, relatives, and parents) appeared associated with emotional, interpersonal, and mentalizing abilities of children, as perceived by parents. Exploring children’s representations of a stressful event like the pandemic through drawings allows to focus both on their difficulties and on their resources, with useful implications for the educational support.
This study aimed at identifying how children express the emerging coronavirus in general and according to their age groups (4-13 years) by analyzing 91 of their drawings published online, using the ...descriptive content analytical approach. The results showed that children's artistic expression of the virus came according to the concepts and ideas they carried about the virus for the age groups of (4-7 years) and (7-9 years), while it came according to visual perception for age groups (9-11 years), and from (11-13) years. Also, most children were aware about the presence of the virus and its widespread around the world, but (99%) of them do not realize the seriousness of the virus. It was confirmed that between (25-34%) of children were suffering from anxiety and fear from the virus, in addition to the lack of knowledge of children aged (4-7 years) of methods of prevention and safety from the virus, only (40%) of them valued the wearing of masks, followed by the importance of staying at home. The study also demonstrated the low percentages that were related to the extent of optimism of children to overcome the pandemic crisis.
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