From drawings to feelings: Exploring the relationship between children’s family drawings, attachment and emotion regulation

Children’s family drawings are commonly associated with attachment, however research on how emotion regulation plays a role in this relationship is quite limited. This study aimed to investigate how children’s emotion regulation capacities and attachment are reflected in the themes that emerge in their drawings. A total of 86 children aged between 6 to 12 and their mothers participated in this study. Children’s attachment security and prototypes were assessed by the Attachment Story Completion Task (ASCT) completed by the children, whereas their emotion regulation capacities were obtained from the Emotion Regulation Checklist (ERC) completed by their mothers. The family drawings were rated based on Global Rating Scales (vitality/creativity, family pride/happiness, vulnerability, emotional distance/isolation, tension/anger, role reversal, bizarreness/dissociation, and global pathology). Gender, age, and intelligence were controlled in the analyses. Findings showed that attachment insecurity and role reversal theme in the family drawings had a significant relationship, however the other family drawing themes did not show a significant relationship with the attachment and emotion regulation variables. The study’s findings and limitations are evaluated and suggestions for future research and clinical practice are discussed.