Inter-Rater Reliability and Concurrent Validity of the Goodenough-Harris and McCarthy Draw-a-Child Scoring Systems

Inter-rater reliability of the Goodenough-Harris and McCarthy Draw-A-Child scoring system was examined for a sample of 60 children, including 20 school-labeled learning disabled, 20 mentally retarded, and 20 normal children between the ages of 6 and 8 1/2 yr. (M = 7-8; 44 males and 16 females; 36 whites and 24 blacks). The inter-rater reliabilities of the Goodenough-Harris system were .938 and .934 for the McCarthy Draw-A-Child. The scores from both drawing tests correlated significantly, .57 to .87, with the WISC-R Full Scale IQ and McCarthy General Cognitive Index. Implications are discussed as they relate to the use of the Goodenough-Harris and McCarthy Draw-A-Child systems.