Adult Projective Drawings in Pandemic Times: Draw-a-Person and Kinetic Family-Drawings with Associations

This projective assessment for studying perceptions of self and family during COVID-19 was part of a project examining the adult decision-making process during the pandemic. For this research project, 110 adults aged 18-82 from the United States and Canada completed a background questionnaire and 30 pandemic-related questionnaire items. In addition, 84 participants (76%) each uploaded four projective drawings, with their accompanying written associations, of self and family as envisioned both prior to and during the pandemic, for a total of 336 drawings collected. These drawings represented Self Pre-Pandemic (SP); Self During Pandemic (SD); Family Pre-pandemic (FP) and Family During Pandemic (FD). Two coders rated each drawing with the accompanying associations for a) type of drawing: (stick figures; full figures; abstract/object-only/ non-peopled; faces only) b) figures depicted with masks c) drawings expressing affect d) activities possible before or during the pandemic e) relationship experiences and f) body image representations. Coder reliabilities were over 90% agreement. Happy faces and positive associations were dramatically more frequent for drawings and associations before versus during the pandemic, whereas ubiquitous expressions of isolation and negative affect were associated with SD and FD drawings. Examples of representative drawings with concomitant associations, for each of the four conditions (SP; FP; SD; FD) are presented, illustrated and discussed. Overall, we found that detailed, evocative expressions of affect were most prevalent in response to the projective drawings in contrast with questionnaire items, suggesting their utility for exploring experiences for persons affected by the pandemic and similar events.