Emotion in children's art: Do young children understand the emotions expressed in other children's drawings?

Abstract

This study examined developmental changes in children's ability to understand the emotions expressed in other children's drawings. Eighty participants, at each of four age groups - three, four, five and six years - were presented with a series of child drawings, each expressing a different emotion (happiness, sadness, anger or fear). All drawings had been previously rated by adult judges on an emotion-intensity scale as being good exemplars of the emotions examined. Next, participants were shown pictures of child artists each expressing one of the designated emotions on her/his face and were instructed to identify the artist who created each drawing. The results showed that: (i) by age three, children demonstrated an understanding of the emotions expressed in drawings; (ii) happiness, sadness and fear were the emotions most easily recognized by participants. Overall, these results provide support for the assertion that the ability to understand the emotional meaning of drawings is present from the preschool years. Copyright © 2008, SAGE Publications.