Ballús Elisabeth, Comelles Ma Carmen, Pasto Ma Teresa, Benedico Paula
Department of Psychology, Universitat Ramon Llull, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
Barcelona City Council (Ajuntament de Barcelona), Barcelona, Spain.
Front Psychol. 2023 Feb 22;14:1002864. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1002864. eCollection 2023.
Reality shows us that situations of mistreatment and sexual abuse in childhood are still seldom visible, despite their high prevalence around the world. It is essential to detect and address them, especially among children in situations of dire risk or neglect. The purpose of this study is to determine if graphic emotional indicators are expressed in the drawings of the projective Draw-a-Person (D.A.P) test, made by children in situations of dire risk or neglect. The sample is made up of 34 children, between the ages of 5 and 11 (17 girls and 17 boys), attended by Specialised Child and Adolescent Care Services of the Barcelona Town Hall (Spain). The drawings were coded quantitatively. The results indicated that most of the drawings show a frequency of graphic emotional indicators, as well as graphic indicators common to experiences of mistreatment and/or abuse, which confirm the existence of emotional problems. However, no significant differences based on gender and age were found, except for one indicator of sexual abuse (body omitted/distorted), which is significantly more common in the boys. Results also revealed that the drawings of human figure enable the children to express their experiences of traumatic situations which are difficult to verbalize. These findings have important implications for professionals, as the use of this projective technique can help to early identification and design treatment strategies in situations of mistreatment and/or abuse in children and their families.
现实向我们表明，童年时期的虐待和性虐待情况仍然很少被关注到，尽管它们在世界各地普遍存在。发现并解决这些问题至关重要，尤其是对于处于极度危险或被忽视状况下的儿童。本研究的目的是确定在极度危险或被忽视状况下的儿童所绘制的投射性画人（D.A.P）测试图中是否表达了直观的情绪指标。样本由34名5至11岁的儿童组成（17名女孩和17名男孩），他们接受了西班牙巴塞罗那市政厅的儿童和青少年专科护理服务。对这些图画进行了定量编码。结果表明，大多数图画显示出直观情绪指标的出现频率，以及虐待和/或性虐待经历中常见的直观指标，这证实了情绪问题的存在。然而，除了一个性虐待指标（身体省略/扭曲）在男孩中明显更常见外，未发现基于性别和年龄的显著差异。结果还表明，人物画使儿童能够表达他们难以用言语表述的创伤经历。这些发现对专业人员具有重要意义，因为使用这种投射技术有助于在儿童及其家庭遭受虐待和/或性虐待的情况下进行早期识别并设计治疗策略。
