DETERMINING THE LEVELS OF ANXIETY, DEPRESSION AND SELF-CONFIDENCE THROUGH DRAWINGS OF CHILDREN AFFECTED BY THE EARTHQUAKE

The aim of this research is to identify behavioral disorders such as post-traumatic anxiety, depression, and self-confidence in their emotional world through the pictures of children who experienced the earthquake. For this purpose, the images of 34 children between the ages of 7 and 9 who experienced the earthquake disaster in Izmir, Türkiye in 2020, were analyzed. In the research, the one-subject research design was used among the experimental designs, which is one of the quantitative research methods. Mann-Whitney U test was used to determine whether there was a significant difference in the analysis of the data. According to the findings of the study, it was concluded that children reflected mental health variables such as their depressive levels, self-esteem levels, and anxiety states with the pictures they drew. The scores obtained from the sub-dimensions of anxiety, depression, and self-confidence in the children's drawings evaluated through the scale were higher in the preliminary drawings immediately after the earthquake compared to the final drawings made three months later. It is understood that this finding caused the high scores of the preliminary drawings because they were made right after the earthquake. This situation revealed that the prepared scale was valid and reliable.  Article visualizations: