Prevalence of projective assessment usage among school psychologists and school-aged children in the state of Kansas.

Abstract

This research examined whether school psychofogists Kansas are utilizing projective assessment as a part of their assessment for intervention practices when dealing with school-aged children. Ninety-seven certified Kansas school psychologists completed a questionnaire at the 2003 National Association for School Psychologists conference in Wichita, Kansas. The questionnaire focused on Thematic Apperception and Children's Apperception Test, Draw-A-Person, Rorschach, Incomplete Sentence Blank, and Bender-Gestalt. Results indicated a continued use of projective assessments by approximately 42% of school psychologists in the state of Kansas although use decreased across the past 20 years. However, the reason for usage is different from the original intention of projective assessment. The results indicate that participant use projective assessments because they build rapport, yield useful information, and increase assessment comprehensiveness .