Assessing the effectiveness of drawing an autobiographical memory as a mood induction procedure in children

Abstract

The objective of our study was to examine the effectiveness of a new version of the autobiographical recall procedure (i.e., drawing a happy personal event) in eliciting a positive mood in 6-, 8-, and 10-year-old children and to compare the drawing condition to the more classical telling condition. The mood of children was assessed before and after induction using the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) and across the two emotional dimensions of valence and arousal. The results showed that the drawing condition was as effective as the telling condition for inducing a positive mood. Furthermore, in the drawing condition, children reported feeling calmer than in the telling condition, suggesting that drawing was more likely to help children regulate their emotional state. The drawing procedure could be used in future research aiming to induce positive moods in school-aged children, to help further investigate the relationship between cognition and emotion.

Keywords:

• Mood induction
• autobiographical memories
• children
• drawing