Comparing the drawings of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder with normal children.

• Main Authors: Mahnaz Haghighi, Maedeh Khaterizadeh, Gholamreza Chalbianloo, Sholeh Toobaei, Ahmad Ghanizadeh
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Tehran University of Medical Sciences 2014-12-01
• Series: Iranian Journal of Psychiatry
• Subjects: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder; Child Symptom Inventory; Draw a Family Test; Draw a Person Test
• Online Access: https://ijps.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijps/article/view/68
• ISSN: 1735-4587; 2008-2215

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most common behavioral problem during childhood and in school-aged children. Various projection drawings have been designed for assessing children's personality and psychological disorders including the tests of draw a person (DAP) and draw a family (DAF). We aimed to compare the differences between typically developing children and children with ADHD using these tests.In this case-control study, all the 9-10 year-old boy students studying at the third and fourth grades were enrolled from schools in the 2nd educational district of Shiraz, south of Iran. Eighty students were then selected and enrolled into the ADHD group and the control group. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition- text Revised (DSM-IV-TR), and the Child Symptoms Inventory were used to diagnose the children with ADHD. We evaluated and analyzed impulsiveness, non-impulsiveness, emotional problems and incompatibility indices in the DAP and DAF tests in each group.A significant difference was found in the indices of incompatibility and emotional problems, impulsiveness, non-impulsiveness and DAF between typically developing children and those with ADHD. The mean (±SD) total scores of the above mentioned indices in the ADHD group were 19.79(±2.94), 12.31(±1.84), 5.26(±2.29) and 5.89(±2.13), respectively (P