The possibilities of recognizing fear by the analysis of children's drawings.

The analysis of the contents of 690 children’s drawings of the den­ t is t ’s o ffice was carried out w ith the aim of determ ining the presence of »fear-inducing« and »encouraging« elements in these drawings. The results showed that only 9% of children drew encouraging elements like flowers, pictures, decorations, etc. The presence of fear-inducing elements appea­ red to depend on: 1) children’s previous experience; 2) children’s age; 3) how the topic had been presented to chidren; and 4) what elements did actually exist in the den tis t’s office.