Using the Draw-a-Story Drawing Test to Predict Perceived Stress, Military Life Adjustment, and Resilience

Abstract

In this study, we investigated how effectively a Draw-a-Story drawing test can predict the perceived stress, military life adjustment, and resilience of soldiers. A total of 276 conscripted male soldiers participated in the study. The research tools included the Perceived Stress Scale, the Military Life Adjustment Scale, the Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale (Korean version), and the Draw-a-Story drawing test. The results of the correlation and regression analyses were as follows. First, perceived stress, military life adjustment, resilience, and DAS emotional content were all mutually correlated. The DAS self-image was positively correlated only with resilience. Second, emotional content predicted soldiers’ perceived stress, military life adjustment, and resilience at significant levels. Meanwhile, our regression analysis showed that self-image did not have significant predictive power. In this paper, we discuss the implications for predictive power of our findings regarding the two measures of DAS; we also propose that DAS could serve as a tool to predict the mental states of soldiers.