title: Race and ethnic differences and human figure drawings: clinical utility of the DAP:SPED.
abstract: This study examined race and ethnic differences on the Draw A Person: Screening Procedure for Emotional Disturbance (DAP:SPED; Naglieri, McNeish, & Bardos, 1991) for youths 6 though 17 years of age for 2 matched samples. Samples were drawn from the DAP:SPED nationally representative standardization sample and matched on gender, grade, and school classroom. No statistically significant differences were found for big figure, small figure, or shading item composites. A statistically significant difference was found between Black-White pairs on figure omissions but showed a small effect size (d value = .25). Further, no statistically significant differences were found between the DAP:SPED Total T scores for Black and White youth (M = 47.67, SD = 10.09; N =138) or Hispanic and White youth (M = 48.20, SD = 9.56; N = 59), showing very small effect sizes. In addition, equivalence testing showed similarities across race and ethnic pairs for all composites and DAP:SPED total score, lending preliminary support to the DAP:SPED's clinical utility as a measure that yields similar scores across these groups.
authors.affiliation: School of Social Welfare, University at Albany, State University of New York, USA. hcmatto@vcu.edu
authors.forename: Holly C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Matto
authors.forename: Jack A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Naglieri
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D000367:Age Factors; D001154:Art; D044383:Black People / Q000523:psychology*; D001828:Body Image; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012737:Sex Factors; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology*