Turkish children’s human figure drawings: can we borrow norms?

Abstract

The present study was undertaken to provide preliminary data on norms for the Human Drawings test for children ages 5–11, in Turkey. Four hundred and thirty children from two different schools, in two different socio‐economic levels, were given the Human Figure Drawings. One was a private school in an affluent part of the city, and the other one was a public school in an economically deprived part of the city. There were 208 boys and 222 girls between the ages of five years and 11 years. Koppitz’s Scoring System was utilised. As expected, the results indicated that as children got older they produced more details in their drawings. There were significant differences in the total number of details produced in terms of sex and socio‐economic level. When compared with Koppitz norms it was seen that Turkish children at some age levels produced more details and that the application of Koppitz’s ‘Expected’ and ‘Exceptional’ items tables would not be appropriate to estimate cognitive ability for this group. The need for developing local norms for tests that are supposed to be culture free was discussed. Further research in terms of validity of the test for this sample is also recommended.

Keywords:

• Turkish children
• human figure drawings