Kid’s drawings reflect family education

An analysis of drawings by three and six year olds found that those from Turkey tended to draw people, mainly their relatives.

An analysis of drawings by three and six year olds found that those from Turkey tended to draw people, mainly their relatives.

Published Jul 23, 2012

Share

Children from educated families are likely to produce more quality creative work, and express their emotions better than those with less educated parents, a study on children’s drawings has revealed.

The study, which analysed freestyle drawings of Turkish and German children, found that educational background influenced the quality of narrative drawings, while culture influenced motifs or themes of their work.

University of Hanover’s Professor Elfriede Billmann-Mahecha presented her research at the 21st International Association for Cultural Psychology congress at Stellenbosch University.

An analysis of drawings by three and six year olds found that those from Turkey tended to draw people, mainly their relatives.

But the German children’s drawings reflected the outside, focusing more on things such as weather, nature, traffic and plants.

Almost half the Turkish children drew people, compared with only 28 percent of German children.

Billmann-Mahecha said: “Those with educated mothers produced higher levels of drawings. Across all points of measurement, Turkish children drew about their families more. These differences can be interpreted as cultural influences by family socialisation.”

The drawings of more than 40 percent of the Turkish children also included more than one person, with almost 50 percent depicting relatives. Only 30 percent of German children drew their relatives.

An analysis of Hungarian childrens’ drawings has shown that hierarchy such as “winning and losing” could influence children’s emotions from a young age.

The study by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences’ Professor Marta Fulop showed that children depicted winners as providing “dominance and control over a loser”. - Cape Argus

Related Topics: