Draw-a-Story response characteristics of young North Korean defectors

• Draw-a-Story response characteristics.
• The emotional contents of drawings.
• The traumatic experiences of young North Korean defectors.

The purpose of this study was to assess the psychological state of young North Korean defectors through the Draw-a-Story (DAS) assessment. The participants included three groups: North Korean defectors, a comparison group, and a control group. The North Korean defectors included 35 adolescents aged between 15 and 17 years living in South Korea. The DAS was used as a study tool. The data analyses were conducted with descriptive statistics, a one-way ANOVA, Scheffe's test, a t-test, and content analysis. The study results were as follows. First, the DAS drawings of North Korean defectors were more negative in emotional content and more fragile in self-image than those of the control group. There were no significant differences between the drawings of North Korean defectors and those of the comparison group. Second, 62% of North Korean defectors used aggressive stimuli in the DAS, and they had lower scores on the Emotional Content scale than the participants who did not choose aggressive stimuli. Third, death and struggling were mainly displayed in the DAS drawings of young North Korean defectors in terms of the drawing content category. In summary, the DAS had an evaluative as well as therapeutic value, in the sense that the psychological states of young North Korean defectors can be expressed through the DAS, and their drawings can give them an opportunity to tell their stories metaphorically.