Responses of mental hospital inpatients on the Draw-A-Person Questionnaire

This study evaluated accuracy of the Draw-A-Person Questionnaire in distinguishing a diagnostically varied group of mental hospital patients from controls. Subjects were 166 mental health inpatients at a public hospital, paid +3 for participation, and 166 controls selected from a group of 1382 adult volunteers to match the patients on age, race, and sex. All subjects were given the Draw-A-Person questionnaires following drawings of a male and female. Questionnaires were scored for Denial, Demeaning, and Likes to Hurt Others scales. In three 2 x 2 x 2 (status x sex x race) analyses of variance, patients scored higher than controls on all scales. African-Americans (n = 242) scored higher than Euro-Americans (n = 78) on Denial. Further analysis of an interaction between patients' status and for Denial suggests that only male patients differed from controls, the former group showing higher Denial scores.