The validity of the Draw-a person test as a sexual abuse indicator.

Abstract

The Draw-A-Person Test (DAP) is frequently administered and utilized as a psychological assessment technique. It is believed that people can project feelings, needs and conflicts into their drawings. Often it is these factors that they are unable to verbally state. This can be a problem for many people who live with conflicts. Sexually abused women frequently do not open up to reveal inner problems. Therefore, this current study sought to investigate if women who reportedly were sexually abused give any indication of such in their DAP. The DAP results of 60 women, 30 of whom reported being sexually abused and 30 of whom reported no sexually abuse were examined. The first two drawings of the DAP were scored by raters for illdefined hands, transparency and shading of the genital region and/or inner thighs. six chi square tests indicated that there was no significant difference between groups for any of the factors. There were ill defined hands, transparency, and shading of the genital area and/or inner thighs for both sexually abused and non-abused women.