Abstract
The present study investigated children’s colour use in drawing tasks specifying single and mixed emotions. One hundred and eighty children (90 girls and 90 boys) between 4 years 11 months and 8 years 1 month (X = 6 years 6 month) participated. All children completed two test sessions in counterbalanced order. Session A measured emotional understanding and colour use in relation to a brief story. Children’s colour preferences were measured in Session B. Children used colours differentially across the drawing types and varied colour use in relation to depictions of other people and themselves using red and blue when depicting a protagonist with mixed emotions and red when depicting their own experiences of mixed emotion. The findings are discussed in terms of the need for caution when interpreting multiple and singular colour–affect associations in children’s drawings and the need to further investigate children’s understanding and non-verbal expression of mixed emotion.
Published Version
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