Children’s Drawing as a Projective Measure to Understand Their Experiences of Dental Treatment under General Anesthesia

Purpose: The overall aim of the study was to gain a deeper understanding of 3 to 10 year-old children’s experiences, main concerns, and how they manage attending hospital for dental treatment under general anesthesia (DTGA). Methods: Twelve children aged 3–10 who were scheduled for DTGA were interviewed. In addition to tape-recorded interviews, data were collected using video diaries, participant observations, and pre-, peri-, and postoperative drawings. The children’s drawings (n = 43) were analyzed using the Child Drawing: Hospital Manual (CD:H) and Vygotsky postulations for context readings, with the aim to explore what it means for children to undergo DTGA. Results: The analysis found that the main concern for children during the pre-operative period was that they were forced to prepare for an unknown experience, which elicited stress. This situation was handled during the peri-operative period by trying to recover control and to cooperate despite fear, stress, and anxiety. Drawings completed post-operatively showed the surgical mask, “stinky” smell of the anesthetic gas, and multiple extraction of teeth were the main troubling experiences for children. Several weeks after DTGA, children tried to regain normalcy in their lives again. Conclusion: This study contributed to a deeper understanding of how children as young as 3 years undergoing DTGA experience and express their lived experiences: emotional, psychological, physiological, or physical stress in the context of DTGA.

Synthetic House-Tree-Person Drawing Test: A New Method for Screening Anxiety in Cancer Patients

The synthetic house-tree-person (S-HTP) drawing test is a projective measure primarily designed to assess specific complex personality traits. It is widely used in general psychological problems and mental illness such as psychological crisis intervention. Applicability and validity of S-HTP drawing test in cancer patients suffering from anxiety are still unclear and there are no reports on such research. The aim of this study was to explore the prevalence of anxiety in cancer patients and to investigate the applicability of S-HTP drawing test in such patients. Self-rating anxiety scale (SAS) and the S-HTP drawing test were applied to 167 cancer patients (58.7% male; 41.3% female), 52.92±10.43 years old. On SAS, anxiety rate was found in 16.17% cancer patients. Using the evaluation results from SAS as the dependent variable and the anxiety drawing characteristics as the independent variables, the logistic regression equation was established, and 9 drawing features were employed in the regression equation (χ2=56.982, P≤0.001, Nagelkerke R2=0.492). It is concluded that there is a positive correlation between S-HTP drawing test and SAS for anxiety state of cancer patients (p<0.01). S-HTP drawing test and SAS have interrater reliability and test-retest reliability. Our findings indicate that the S-HTP drawing test could help in screening anxiety in cancer patients.

Covert Assessment of the Family System: Patterns, Pictures and Codes

Covert measures of the family system can tap concepts and discover patterns of which family members themselves are unaware and can avoid social desirability bias. Covert measures can be particularly useful in cross-cultural research and can avoid many pitfalls of language and translation. Three such measures which have been used cross-culturally are described. The first is a method of measuring triangulation of children by the parents based on patterns of agreement in a true-false questionnaire describing the family. The second is a projective measure in which family members as a group create a picture of their family distinguishing relationships between individuals and boundaries within and around the family. The third is a global coding scheme used to evaluate family processes from taped interaction.

Covert Assessment of the Family System: Patterns, Pictures and Codes

Covert measures of the family system can tap concepts and discover patterns of which family members themselves are unaware and can avoid social desirability bias. Covert measures can be particularly useful in cross-cultural research and can avoid many pitfalls of language and translation. Three such measures which have been used cross-culturally are described. The first is a method of measuring triangulation of children by the parents based on patterns of agreement in a true-false questionnaire describing the family. The second is a projective measure in which family members as a group create a picture of their family distinguishing relationships between individuals and boundaries within and around the family. The third is a global coding scheme used to evaluate family processes from taped interaction.