title: Using drawing tests to explore the multidimensional psychological aspects of children with cancer.
abstract: In seeking to understand how life-threatening illness affects children psychologically, projective testing may be beneficial, particularly when attempting to identify psychological problems in younger adolescents. The advantages of projective testing are that it does not depend on patients' verbal ability and is not invasive. Three cancer inpatients from Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, aged between 10 and 16 years old, participated in the study. Projective testing was used to measure the depth of participants' distress and included a tree-drawing test, a person-drawing test and a free drawing test. Results from the tree- and person-drawing tests indicated energy loss, anxiety and a sense of emptiness. However, results from the free drawing test suggested that the children had hope and a desire to recover from their illness. The combination of drawing tests in this study may increase the understanding of the internal psychological difficulties faced by children hospitalized with cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kyoto yhatano@koto.kpu-m.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Yutaka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hatano
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Kitayama Hospital, Kyoto.
authors.forename: Miwa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yamada
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Kyoto second red cross hospital, Kyoto.
authors.forename: Kanae
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nakagawa
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kyoto.
authors.forename: Hiromi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nanri
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Kyoto Notre Dame University, Kyoto, Japan.
authors.forename: Masatoshi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kawase
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kyoto.
authors.forename: Kenji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fukui
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001007:Anxiety / Q000209:etiology*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D065026:Hope; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D011385:Projection; D011581:Psychological Tests; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000209:etiology*
keywords: adolescents; life-threatening disease; pediatric cancer; projective tests; psychological distress