Sex preferences of mentally retarded children depicted in the human figure drawn first.

This study was designed to investigate the effect of sex, age (5 to 18 yr), and IQ (20 to 78) of subjects on sex of human figures drawn first by 146 mentally retarded children. The results showed that the percentages of self-sex figures drawn first by mentally retarded boys and girls are statistically significantly lower than those for boys and girls of normal ability and that neither severity of retardation nor age is significant in determining the frequencies with which a self-sex figure is drawn first by mentally retarded boys and girls. It was suggested that minimal intelligence is required to learn the sex-identification and to identify with one's own sex.