TITLE:
The “Colour Family Drawing Test”: A Comparison between Children of “Harmonious” or “Very Conflictual Families”
AUTHORS:
Valeria Biasi, Paolo Bonaiuto, James M. Levin
KEYWORDS:
Colour, Emotion, Family Drawing Test, Children, Styling, Assessment
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.5 No.19,
December
5,
2014
ABSTRACT: The
“Colour Family Drawing Test” applied a classification of colours on an
emotional basis leading to the distinction between “Alarming and Serious”
(black, grey, violet, olive-green, dark blue, red, yellow) and “Reassuring and
Playful” hues (pink, sky blue, orange and pastel colours). 120 participants
(aged 7 - 10 years, both genders), attending Rome primary schools, were
individually examined. They sat at a table with a white A4 card, 24 colour
pencils, a black pencil, an eraser and received the instruction: “Draw your
family”. The research objective concerns the introduction of colours and the
evaluation of emotional meaning of the colours used by children in drawing
their families. The families had been preliminarily evaluated as Harmonious or
Very Conflictual Families through a semi-structural interview conducted with
the children’s teachers. The drawings made by children of Harmonious Families
consistently used reassuring, playful colours (p p t53 =
2.95; p