Attachment and abuse indicators through family drawings and self-figure drawings of institutionalized children in South India

This study examined attachment and experiences of abuse among institutionalized Indian children using family drawings (FD) and self-figure drawings (SFD). A sample of 92 children aged 9–13 years (51 girls, 41 boys) completed FD, SFD, the Kerns Security Scale, and the Medical Somatic Dissociation Questionnaire. Analyses revealed that FD scales—Vitality, Pride, and Bizarreness—were related to sexual and emotional abuse indices from SFD, with specific indicators also correlating with global pathology. Gender differences emerged on the Bizarreness scale, and gender moderated the relationship between Vitality and emotional abuse. These preliminary findings suggest that combining FD and SFD can help identify attachment patterns and forms of abuse in institutionalized Indian children, offering a nontraditional, nonverbal approach to understanding this population.