Drawing on resilience: piloting the utility of the Kinetic Family Drawing to measure resilience in children of HIV-positive mothers

Initial support for the cross-cultural utility of the KFD to measure resilience in young children faced with adversity is indicated.

Abstract

In this article we describe how using a visual, child-friendly measure of resilience
\nin a randomised control trial (RCT), the Kgolo Mmogo (KM) project, resulted in
\nrepresentative insights on resilience in a mother-child relationship where the mother
\nis HIV-positive. We used the existing psychological method Kinetic Family Drawing
\n(KFD) to measure resilience of young children in the qualitative phase of the
\nconcurrent mixed method RCT as the children represent cultural groups for whom
\nstandardized measures have not been developed. We use the case example of baseline
\nKM assessment data of 6 year olds (n = 11; 3 female, 8 male). The results of the
\nstudy demonstrate that the visual and qualitative data from children (KFD) added
\nto quantitative information obtained from mothers (Vineland Adaptive Behavior
\nScale, VABS). Additional information from the KFD had interpretation value for
\nVABS scores and provided a child’s perspective regarding resilience. Contrasting
\ninformation from the KFD problematized mothers’ perspectives as indicated in the
\nVABS. The absence of significant information in KFD results regarding VABS
\nsub-domains indicates differences in the cultural/contextual conceptualization of
\nresilience. This exploratory study indicates initial support for the cross-cultural
\nutility of the KFD to measure resilience in young children faced with adversity.