The use of children's drawings in the evaluation and treatment of child sexual, emotional, and physical abuse
L. W. Peterson, M. Hardin and M. J. Nitsch
Department of Pediatrics, University of Nevada School of Medicine, Reno, USA.
Primary care physicians can be instrumental in the initial identification
of potential sexual, emotional, and physical abuse of children. We reviewed
the use of children's artwork as a method of communicating individual and
family functioning. A quantitative method of analyzing children's artwork
provides more reliability and validity than some methods used previously. A
new scoring system was developed that uses individual human figure drawings
and kinetic family drawings. This scoring system was based on research with
842 children (341 positively identified as sexually molested, 252
positively not sexually molested but having emotional or behavioral
problems, and 249 "normal" public school children). This system is more
comprehensive than previous systems of assessment of potential abuse.
