To investigate psychopathological correlates of child obesity via the Draw-A-Person test (DAP).

The participants were 50 children with a mean age of 9.74 years. Body mass index (BMI) was used as a measure of body fat. Children were divided into normal (n = 17), overweight (n = 14) and obese (n = 19). Two qualitative methods of scoring the DAP based on an integrative approach were used to assess self-concept (ESW) and overall level of children's adjustment (EAC). A procedure for judging interpretative skills of clinicians was implemented before they evaluated children's drawings.

As predicted by our hypothesis, BMI was negatively correlated with ESW, r (50) = -0.29, P < 0.05, but not with EAC, r (50) = - 0.08, P = ns. To evaluate the effect of gender, Pearson correlations were re-computed regrouping the sample accordingly: BMI and EAC reached a significant negative correlation in female subjects, r (24) = -0.36, P < 0.05, and a positive correlation in male subjects, r (26) = 0.37, P = < 0.05; negative correlation between BMI and ESW became stronger in females, r (24) = -0.51, P < 0.01 but not in males, whose correlation disappeared resulting not-significant, r (26) = -0.06, P = ns. No effect of age was found. Results indicate that obesity has a negative correlation exclusively on overall adjustment and self-concept in female children.

It was concluded that there is a negative bias toward females that reveals how the stigma of obesity is widespread in Western society.

This paper describes eight years of experience in using the Draw-A-Person (DAP) test in sex therapy. The DAP was used as part of the initial assessment and as a source of data about change during the course of therapy and at termination. The DAP test was found to be a helpful adjunct to clinical observation with regard to both intrapsychic and interpersonal factors, and it is recommended as a tool which may be useful to other sex therapists.

On the basis of Kinetic Family Drawings, doctoral level clinicians, predoctoral interns, and hospital secretaries judged 36 children to be normal or disturbed and indicated their degree of confidence in each rating. The groups were not found to differ in overall diagnostic accuracy or in degree of confidence, but professional training level did appear related to the ability to better a chance level of performance. The performance of a KFD expert was no better than the mean performance of judges in the three experimental groups.