The use of drawing as an emotion regulation technique with children.
Résumé
The present study was designed to assess the effectiveness of drawing as an emotion regulation technique with children aged 7 (N = 66) and 10 (N = 72) and to compare 3 drawing conditions, a vent condition and 2 distract conditions (free and happy drawing), as a function of age and emotional comprehension. We also examined whether the effectiveness of drawing could be influenced by other individual factors (drawing ppreciation, perceived competence, graphic skills, drawing duration). First, children’s mood was measured before the mood induction. Participants were then induced in a negative mood and their mood was measured a second time. Then, they were asked to draw and their mood was measured a third time. Then, they were asked to assess their appreciation of drawing, their perceived competence; they also made two additional drawings and completed the Test of Emotion Comprehension. The results indicate that drawing can be used as a reliable emotion regulation technique with children. We found a larger mood improvement in the distraction conditions compared to the venting one, especially for children with a medium emotional comprehension (mental stage). Finally, the effectiveness of drawing was only influenced by children’s perceived competence. These results are discussed in terms of their implications in clinical and educational settings.