Kinetic Family Drawing Test

The Kinetic Family Drawing (KFD) is a projective test used to understand and assess the perspectives of children and adolescents on their families. [Page 511]Interpretation of the KFD is based on the “projective hypothesis,” which is an assumption that an individual, when drawing a picture on a blank page, will project his or her thoughts, concerns, conflicts, needs, motivations, and frustrations into the picture. According to one of the originators of the KFD, Robert C. Burns, the KFD allows us to see the self as it is reflected and expressed in the family; it enables the young person to depict the family as a functioning, active unit and allows us to see the child's impressions of these dynamic interactions among family members. Administration of the test is simple, requiring the individual to “draw a picture of your whole family, including yourself, doing something” on a sheet of plain white paper.

According to Burns, scoring of the picture uses four major categories: Actions; Distances, Barriers, and Positions; Physical Characteristics of the Figures; and Styles. Actions refers to the content or theme of the drawing and it may symbolize cooperation, communication, masochism, narcissism, nurturance, sadism, or tension. Physical Characteristics represents formal aspects of the drawings (e.g., inclusion/exclusion and size of essential body parts, the relative sizes of the figures, and facial expressions). Distances, Barriers, and Positions refers to the barriers between figures, the direction faced by each figure, and the distances between figures. Styles refers to the organization of the figures on the page and includes descriptors such as Compartmentalization (intentional separation of family figures using lines); Edging (placement of all figures on the perimeter of the paper); Encapsulation (encapsulating one or more figures by lines or objects); and Underlining individual figures (lines immediately below a standing individual or individuals). The various categories are scored and then interpreted. For example, Burns suggested that tension and instability in the family may be demonstrated by compartmentalization, subgroups as opposed to a united family, or barriers between people. Feelings of isolation or rejection may be evidenced by no face on the self, a distorted self-figure, or orientation of one or both parents away from the self.

A review of the reliability and validity studies of the KFD is complicated by the fact that there have been several scoring systems proposed for the KFD, sometimes with additional scoring variables. Thus, the KFD remains a clinical instrument with inadequate norms and questionable validity. Numerous authors have criticized the somewhat arbitrary interpretations of drawing variables based upon factors that have not been validated empirically. Therefore, the clinical skill of the interpreter is very important in the interpretation of the drawings, possibly accounting for the disparate results found by researchers who are not first and foremost clinicians. Most researchers have treated the scoring variables independently of each other, finding nonsignificant or contradictory results, whereas a qualitative, integrative, holistic scoring system has shown more promise. Clinicians tend to use the KFD as an icebreaker with clients and as a starting point for conversations about family. It is added to a range of clinical techniques and psychometric tests to provide more information about the individual's perspectives on the self in the family.

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