Anxiety assessment has been one ofthe uses ofHuman Figure Drawing Test (HFD). The Handler HFD rating scale for anxiety, an important scoring system in this field, has generated several divergent studies about its validity. The main goal of this study was to investigate the validity of Handler indexes through an experimental model comparing HFD of 53 pediatric elective surgery patients, from 7 to 13 years old, to a control group. Results showed significant difference between experimental and control groups in tenns of STAI-C but no differences in tenns od HFD. This data, associated with the lack of significant correlation between STAI-C and HFD, suggest that Handler rating scale is not valid for our children.
Anxiety; Human figure drawing; Validity
