Citation

Pfeffer CR, Richman J. Comp. Ment. Health Care 1991; 1(2): 77-90.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1991, Springer Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Reviews the literature and highlights, with clinical examples, guidelines for human figure drawing assessment of suicidal risk in children. Research shows that children's human figure drawings identify suicidal behavior in preadolescent psychiatric inpatients with a sensitivity of 72% and a specificity of 70%. Human figure drawings of suicidal and nonsuicidal preadolescents have a wide degree of psychopathology. Examples of human figure drawing reveal the presence of suicidal indicators such as slash lines on the body. These indicators differentiate suicidal from nonsuicidal children, but they do not identify the level of severity of suicidal ideation or behavior. Also, these indicators may be present at a time when suicidal ideation or acts are not clinically apparent. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

Keywords

assessment of suicidal risk; children & preadolescents; diagnostic utility of human figures drawing; Human Figures Drawing; Psychodiagnosis; Suicide