Date of Award

Spring 5-2013

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

EVMS School of Health Professions

Program/Concentration

Art Therapy

Committee Director

Monika Isip

Committee Member

Sarah Deaver

Committee Member

Abby Calisch

Abstract

There have been contrasting opinions about children’s drawings. Considerable research is in support of culture having an influence on the drawings of children and adolescents, in that there are visible differences in drawing style, content, etc. Whereas, other research states that many characteristics in children’s drawings are universal constructs. Focus was placed on the family unit in terms of art assessment because research supports that the family cannot be understood outside of the context of culture. The current study sought to recognize how children portray the family unit and whether culturally-specific patterns would emerge through their family drawings.

Due to the lack of research, little is known about the Kinetic Family Drawing (KFD) and its use cross-culturally, especially within the field of art therapy. The KFD was utilized in order to examine how children depict the family unit and to reveal whether there would be visible cultural differences within their drawings. This study sought to extend the research on the use of the KFD within the field of art therapy, especially with ethnically diverse populations.

Filipino-American children were selected for the study because of the large Filipino population in the Hampton Roads area. There were six female Filipino-American participants between the ages of 5-8. One participant was removed from the sample due to the exclusion criteria. The participants were recruited face-to-face in a Filipino restaurant and cultural center. They were provided with a pencil, white paper, oil pastels, and colored pencils and were allotted 20 minutes to complete the KFD drawings. The KFDs were then analyzed by the investigators to find themes in the artwork of Filipino-American children.

The drawings of the Filipino-American children revealed many themes that were seen across all six drawings within the areas of Content, Formal Elements, and Miscellaneous themes. The majority of the Filipino-American children seemed to depict family members equally engaged in the same activity. They were also highly detail oriented, differentiating figures providing rich detail. Despite finding many similar themes across all six drawings, the results of the study cannot be generalized due to the small sample size.

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DOI

10.25777/e10g-wa92

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