Children's Family Drawings as Expressions of Attachment Representations Across Cultures: Possibilities and Limitations

Abstract

The present study explored the cross-cultural appropriateness of children's family drawings as a measure for attachment quality. The sample consisted of 63 children aged 6years from two diverse ecosocial contexts: middle-class families from Berlin, Germany (n=32) and rural farming families from small villages around Kumbo, Cameroon (n=31). The analysis of drawings with two classical attachment procedures, the Checklist of Drawing Signs (Kaplan & Main, 1986) and the Global Rating Scales (Fury, 1996), revealed substantial cultural differences. The results thus substantiated children's drawings as important cultural documents. Implications of the findings, however, are discussed in consideration of culture-specific conceptions of attachment relationships as indicated by cultural variations in mother's socialization goals.