The purpose of this study lies in recognizing the differences in the reactions to Draw-A-Story(DAS) tests of children from regional children centers, who lack the ability to verbally express themselves, and in deciding whether DAS tests actually funct...
The purpose of this study lies in recognizing the differences in the reactions to Draw-A-Story(DAS) tests of children from regional children centers, who lack the ability to verbally express themselves, and in deciding whether DAS tests actually function as a means of measurement of the depression levels of the children. In order to achieve this, Children's Depression Inventory(CDI) tests and DAS tests were carried out among 500 children from grades 1 to 6(232 boys and 268 girls) in S city of the Jeollanam-do region, and DAS test results according to depression levels and their characteristics were studied.
In order to analyze demographic data of the subjects and the differences between groups more easily, frequency analysis and cross-tabulations were used. One-way ANOVA was carried out in order to investigate the differences among the results of DAS tests according to depression levels, and Scheff? multiple comparison was used as post-examination for the investigation of differences between groups. Also, X2 was carried out to check whether DAS stimulation choices showed significant differences depending on depression levels, gender, grade and the length of time spent at the center. Lastly, the relation between the CDI total score and sub-criteria score, and the DAS sub-criteria. data was analyzed with SPSS 18.0 version. The result of the research was as the following.
Firstly, group differences between grade and time spent at the center were insignificant among children belonging to a group, therefore all three groups showed similar patterns in these distribution parts. Only the ratio of boys was significantly higher in the middle-depression level group compared to the other two groups.
Secondly, significantly higher DAS scores in the emotional parts were shown in the low depression level group during the examination of the differences between groups. Self-image was not significant in the post-examination, but in the preparation test, the high depression level group showed significantly low scores than the low depression level group. The difference of humor between groups wassignificant, and the high depression level group showed significantly lower scores than the low depression level group. The difference of time spent at the center was insignificant before and during the actual research. The difference between the details were significant, and the scores of the high and middle depression groups were higher than that of the low depression group.
Thirdly, the cross-tabulation carried out to examine the differences among DAS stimulation choices according to depression levels showed that high depression level groups were more likely to choose 'knife' than low level groups. Dividing according to gender, boys were significantly more likely to choose 'knife', 'dinosaur', 'snake', 'volcano', and girls were significantly more likely to choose 'parachute', 'boy', 'woman', and 'gender'. Dividing acordinng to grade, lower grades were significantly more likely to choose 'knife', 'woman', 'gender', while higher grades chose 'parachute', 'mouse', 'man with a pipe', and 'cat'.
Fourth, as a result of studying the relationship between the CDI total score and sub-criteria score, and the DAS sub-criteria to determine the function of the test as a means of measurement of the depression levels of children, the total CDI and the emotional content, self-image and humor of DAS showed a negative relationship. In the relationship between sub-scales, all the sub-scales of DAS showed a negative relationship with those of the CDI, and the depression, loss of interest, behavior problems and physical problems of the CDI showed significatly negative relationships with the self-image of DAS. The depression, loss of interest, behavior problems and physical problems of the CDI showed significatly positive relationships with the details of the DAS. On the other hand, location showed no significant relationship with other sud scales. In other words, the higher the level of seprssion, the more negative, aggressive and self-destructive stories the subjects imagined and drew. There were no significant differences in the use of location, but the subjects tended to express more detail if they are depressed.
This research showed that DAS shows the depression levels of the children at the regional children center well, and is therefore fit for use as a means of determining depression levels. But, using the DAS test as the only means of determining depression levels requires caution, and more clinical research reports are necessary in Korea.