Investigation of attachment representations and family perceptions of children wo have experienced parental loss through projective drawing

The loss of a parent during childhood is one of the traumatic events that can deeply affect the child's emotional development, attachment patterns and perception of family. During this process, children often have difficulty verbally expressing the emotional voids and psychological burdens they experience; instead, they reflect their inner worlds through projective ways such as drawing. In this context, the purpose of this study is to examine the attachment representations and family perceptions of children who have experienced parental loss through projective assessment tools such as "Draw a Family" and "Bird's Nest Drawing" tests. The study was structured in the light of both qualitative and quantitative data to understand how parental loss is reflected in children's internal representations. The research was conducted within the framework of phenomenological design, which is one of the qualitative research methods. In addition, the data obtained from the picture analyzes were converted into numerical data and tabulated with frequency and percentage analyzes; thus, qualitative findings were interpreted with quantitative support. The universe of the study consists of 100 children between the ages of 7 and 13 who are studying in various primary and secondary schools in the Üsküdar district of Istanbul in the 2024–2025 academic year. This group consists of 50 children who have lost a parent (27 girls, 23 boys), and 50 children in the control group whose parents are alive (33 girls, 17 boys). Participants were determined by confirmatory and falsifying case sampling from purposeful sampling methods. In the data collection process, in addition to the demographic information form, the "Draw a Family" Test and the "Draw a Bird's Nest" Test were used; the applications were carried out through face-to-face interviews with the direct participation and management of the researcher. Informed consent was obtained from each participant before the research. The obtained data were evaluated using the content analysis method. Findings: according to the family drawing test data, it was observed that the distance between family members increased in the drawings of children who had experienced parental loss, some important figures (e.g. the lost parent) were not drawn or were represented in a blurred manner; emotional ties between figures were weakly reflected, and children positioned themselves as alone or excluded in the drawings. The bird nest drawing test results showed that children who experienced parental loss mostly drew lonely birds, incomplete nests or did not include parental bird figures at all. It was observed that symbolic representations of emotional closeness were weak. In contrast, the drawings of children with living parents were more organized, and themes of family unity, emotional closeness, and trust were more clearly represented. These findings reveal that children who have experienced parental loss move away from secure attachment representations and that themes of loneliness, insecurity, and lack of belonging are prevalent in children's inner worlds. This study contributes to both academic literature and the assessment processes of mental health professionals working with children by examining the impact of a significant life event such as parental loss on children's attachment representations and family perceptions using projective assessment tools. This study has once again demonstrated that projective techniques such as drawing are an effective and valuable method for reaching children's inner worlds and understanding emotions and relationships. Keywords: Parental Loss, Attachment Representations, Family Perception, Projective Drawing Tests