Relationships between the Goodenough-Harris Draw-a-Person Test and a body-image test in Costa Rican children

Although researchers have used drawings of the human figure to evaluate body-image in adults and children, test measures of the concepts involved have not been precisely constructed, so the purpose of this study was to estimate the body-image concept relations measured on the Goodenough-Harris Draw-a-Person Test and on the Prueba para Diagnóstico de Imagen Corporal--Universidad Nacional for 90 kindergarten, first and second graders. Factor analyses (sex by grade, 2 x 3; and sex by age, 2 x 7) showed that sex was not a significant factor on either measure, but grade and age were. A Pearson correlation for the total scores on both tests was a moderate, significant value of .45. Correlations of the total with subtest scores varied from .30 to .50. Values were strongest for first grade children from 6 to 6 1/2 yr. of age (.59 to .78), at the beginning of the developmental period in which children gradually gain an awareness of the parts of the body, their functions and left-right concepts.