A Study of the Color Preferences of Pre-School Children Used in Their Facial Expression Drawings

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the facial expressions and color preferences used by orphaned children, children who have experienced an earthquake and children living with their parents.The sample of the study included 85 children, 27 of whom had experienced the great earthquakes in Bolu and Gölcük in 1999, 21 orphans living in Keçiören Atatürk Child Care Center and 37 children living with their families. Regular A4 white paper and coloring pens were used as data collecting tools, and children were asked to draw human figures with happy, scared, surprised, sad and aggravated facial expressions, respectively. Children were told that they were allowed to use whichever colors they wanted.. The children’s drawings, each reflecting different facial expressions, were examined to ascertain which, and how many, colors had been used. The results of the study revealed that the majority of the children who had experienced an earthquake and the orphaned children used only one or two colors, while the majority of the children living with their families used at least two or more different colors. It was found that the children who had experienced an earthquake particularly chose black as the color to reflect all of the facial expressions. It was seen that the colors used by orphans and by the children living with their families showed differences according to the facial expressions illustrated.