Reflections of Fears of Children to Drawings*

The purpose of this study is to examine the fears of children who are 6-10 years old via drawings. In this study, phenomenology research design which is among qualitative research methods was used. The study group of the study consisted of 314 children aged between 6 and 10 years in three primary schools in Kirsehir city center in 2017-2018 academic year. The data obtained from the participants were analyzed by using the content analysis method. As a result of the research, the drawings were collected under 6 categories according to their similar characteristics .When the drawings obtained from the children were classified, it was seen that the most fear is related to the category of animals, while the least fear is related to the drawings of the category of fears related to medical. In addition, children preferred to use black, red, blue, yellow and green colors in their fear themed drawings.


Introduction
The concept of fear, which is one of the important topics of the science of psychology was defined by many theoretician in a widespread manner as " a normal, basic and expected state of spiritual reaction and universal emotion affect that occurs in a visible (real) or invisible (unreal) dangerous and threatening situation in living things (Bakircioglu, 2002;Capli, 1993;Gullone, 2000;Koknel, 2004;Yorukoglu, 2000). Most research on fear has pointed out that there are basically two sources of fear. One of them is natural fear and the other one is learned fear. Natural fear is start with birth and as part of human nature. Learned fear is a fear that the individual has gained as a result of stimuli in the natural life process. On the other hand, when the fears are classified according to their types, they are classified into two types: fears based on a real and visible concrete cause and the fears based on reasons that the individual does not fully know and based on unseen abstract causes. In the first kind of fear, the individual feels a direct danger to himself/ for some reason, while in the second kind of fear he is worried that he/she is not able to define it, and that he feels anxious for a mysterious and frightening reason (Friedberg, 1983).
Fear is a normal part of the child's development, except that it is too violent and disproportionate to affect the child's life. According to many criteria such as fear being acceptable to the extent of the person's age and development, whether it affects his daily life or a certain period of his life, it can be classified as abnormal fears or phobias and normal and acceptable fears (Miller, Barrett & Hampre, 1974).
There are many sources of fear in children varying according to ages and periods. Fear differs depending on the developmental characteristics of the age group of children. In infancy, fear is a response to the immediate dangers posed by the environment, as the child grows and matures the field of fear changes. As children begin to learn how to deal with fear while they are more scared at first, their self-esteem increases and their fears begin to decline as they become less familiar (Bakircioglu, 2002;Bal, 2010;Elmaci, 2006;Koknel, 2004;Marasuna & Eroglu, 2013;Muris & Merckelbach, 2000;Solter, 2015;Young & Szpunar, 2012). Some of the child's fears disappear as the child progresses and some fears continue (Zulliger, 2005). Such fears are also called sticky fears. Sticky fears are the fears that appear in childhood through fears that continue in adulthood. Most of the fears experienced in childhood leave a mark on the A drawing which is a product of the child's feelings, thoughts and perceptual abilities is a criterion for recognizing the child psycho pedagogically as well as a means of expression which reflects the inner world of child with some characteristic such as intelligence, personality, and close environment (Arici, 2006). In addition, drawing is a nonverbal method of evaluation and a symbolic way of speech for children whose language abilities are not fully developed or who have difficulty in expressing their feelings and emotions orally, and it is not a threaten assessment tool that children would like to participate in (Guvenc, 2005;Malchiodi, 2005;White, Wallace & Huffman, 2004). The child actually plays the game while drawing. But during this game their emotions are real and spontaneous (Yavuzer, 2007).
In their drawings, children do not only present their visual perceptions of the outside world, but also give their clues about their inner worlds by expressing their imaginations, their frustrations, fears, joys, images of their emotional and intellectual life, their contradictions about the real world (Schirrmacher, 2002). The drawing is a way for children to tell us about their lives. Through drawings, the unconscious can be reflected; even the child expresses his problems with this method. For this reason, drawing is an important research area in psychology. According to the psycho-analytic theory put forward by Sigmund Freud, the child's drawings are greatly influenced by his subconscious desires and fears, and the expression of these desires can be symbolic or secret. In this context, the drawings acts as a security valve where the child's emotions can be confide harmlessly. At the same time, this idea argue that drawings could provide for the elimination of depressed feelings (catharsis), and argue that instinctual impulses could be expressed in a harmless way. This idea is also important in that it constitutes the logical basis behind treatment through art (Yavuzer, 2007).
As a result, this study tries to bring together an important expression which is like a fear in childhood and it is very fun in childhood like drawing a picture and it is the most important tool that allows the child to reflect himself as easily and nonverbally. It is thought that children in 6-10 years of age make a significant contribution to the literature as it aims to reveal their fears in the most current form.

Research Goal
The main aim of this study is to examine the fears of children who are 6-10 years old with drawings. In line with this general objective, the following questions were sought; 1. How do children of 6-10 reflect their fears on the drawings? 2. Are there any gender and age differences between 6-10 years old children about reflecting their fears in the drawings?
3. What colors do the 6-10 year-olds children prefer in their drawings about their fears?

Methodology
In this part of the research, information about the design of the research, the study group, data collection tools and data analysis are presented.

Research Design
In this study, Phenomenology research design which is among qualitative research methods was used. Phenomenology studies are aimed to reveal and interpret individual perceptions or perspectives on a particular case (Yildirim & Simsek, 2013). Phenomenology examines events itself rather than prejudiced reasons. When analyzing children's drawings, it is emphasized that it is open to the various meanings that are phenomenologically important, to the context in which they were created and to the person whose vision of world .One way of addressing children's expressions from different perspectives is that the viewer looks at the various angles, creates meanings by putting images forward, and brings a more holistic view of the children's drawings. Examining at a phenomenological perspective involves accepting and expecting that every child approaches a drawing in a different way and has a unique style of drawing with compositions, forms, colors, which he likes or dislikes in their drawings (Malchiodi, 2005). Although it has been used in more recent studies than in the past, the effective use of the drawings produced by participants in qualitative research is still largely unexplored. There are two reasons for the use of the drawings produced by the participants. First, drawings are a way to quickly touch the emotional world of the participants .Secondly, the drawings are one way of revealing one's own experiences without being biased about a subject (Yalcin & Enginer, 2014, as cited in Kearney & Hyle, 2004).

Participants
Participants of the study consisted of 314 children including 153 male and 161 female aged between 6 and 10 years in three primary schools in Kirsehir city center in 2017-2018 academic year. Table 1 show the age and gender distribution of 6-10 year old children.

Data Collection Tools
For the purpose of the study, a photocopying paper and crayons were given to the students who took part in the study by taking into consideration the time of the visual arts course in the programs of the schools in the working group. As a directive, following direction was wanted "close your eyes and think about what scares you the most. When you're done thinking, open your eyes and draw the best you can on this paper and then paint the colors you want." A class hour is given for the child to draw. While the students were doing their drawing, the researcher and the teacher were in the classroom environment.
One of the main problems in drawing analysis is to interpret the drawings from a researcher perspective (Leonard, 2006). However, in order for children to be able to interpret the meaning of their pictorial expressions from children's point of view, they should be heard and noted on the pictures they made (Malchiodi, 2005). In this context, students of 2nd, 3rd and 4th year were asked to briefly explain the names and surnames of their papers, their age, grade level and the objects in the drawing and what they were afraid of. In the first year, this process was carried out by taking into account the explanations of the children and it was took a note by the class teachers and the researchers.

Data Analysis
The drawings collected from the children were analyzed by content analysis method. Content analysis is a scientific approach that allows the study of verbal, written and other materials in an objective and systematic way and allows them to be organized according to certain categories (Bogdan & Biklen, 2007;Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2007;Hill, Thompson & Williams, 1997;Leblebici & Kilic, 2004;Tavsancil & Aslan, 2001). For this purpose, the children's drawings (a total of 325 drawings) were first subjected to a preliminary examination and evaluated whether the children drawn pictures according to the instructions given. At this stage, 11 drawings with more than one theme and no theme were eliminated and the remaining 314 drawings were evaluated. Then, the things told by the children about their drawings were examined by the researcher and the symbols and colors in the drawings were listed. After this stage, appropriate categories were determined by taking into consideration the common characteristics of the symbols.
Since the theme of the drawings of children is fear, categorization was made by taking into consideration the childhood fear classifications in the literature. Then the symbols used in the drawings are included in six categories determined by frequency.

Validity and Reliability
In qualitative research, presenting the views of the participants and explaining the results from the views are an important factor for validity (Ratcliff, 1995). For this reason, the data analysis process is explained in detail in order to ensure the validity of this research, during the analysis and interpretation of the data, drawings of participants were presented in the findings section and necessary explanations were made (Yildirim & Simsek, 2013).
In order to ensure the internal reliability of the study, expert opinions were consulted in the stages of the elimination of the drawings obtained as a result of the analysis of the data and formation of the categories. The drawings made by the students were examined by two visual arts teachers working in primary school for expert opinion.
In order to verify the reliability of the research, expert opinion was applied. In order to confirm whether the symbols under the categories considered in the literature represent the categories, an expert was asked to compare the categories of symbols and symbols related to the symbols. Then, the matches of the expert were compared with the researcher's own categories. When the inter-encoder reliability was calculated, the formula Reliability= [Number of agreements / (Total number of agreements + Total number of disagreements) x 100] proposed by Miles and Huberman (1994) was used. A 97 % consensus was reached in the reliability study conducted for this study. The expert, who was consulted within the scope of the reliability study, linked the nine drawings to a different category from the researcher's category. In this case, the reliability was calculated as 314/305 + 9 = 0.97. In qualitative studies, it is predicted that there is a desired level of reliability in cases where compliance between expert and researcher assessments is 90 % or more (Saban, 2009).
Finally, the frequencies and percentages of the drawings that were thought to represent these categories were calculated. In the quotations from the drawings of the participants, the personal information about which participant produced the drawing was coded in parentheses (drawing no/ gender/ age) at the beginning of the quotation. As a result of the analysis of the drawings, the samples which are the most common among categories and which are found by the researcher as interesting as compared to the other drawings are presented in the findings section.

Dark and night fears
Dark (26), A bad dream/having a nightmare (12), Becoming lonely at home at night (6), Going out at night (4), Going to bed alone at night (3). 51
The following are the example sentences defined by children and drawings of each fear category and the symbols that formed that category.

Picture 1. (8 years old / male)
A snake was drawn as an object of fear. It was painted with black, yellow and green colors. He explained what he feared by stating: "Snakes are poisonous and they can bite me'' (P.42).
Picture 2. (9 years old / female) A dog was drawn as a fear object. It was painted with black, blue and red colors. She explained what he feared by stating: "I'm afraid of dogs because there are a few in our neighborhood and a child was coursed and bited recently, so I'm afraid they'll come to exist and bite me" (P.124).
Picture3. (10 years old/ male) A shark was drawn as a fear object. It was painted with black and dark blue colors. He explained what he feared by stating: "Sharks are very dangerous. I saw in a documentary they have horrible teeth" (P.60).

Categories About Dangerous Situation and Fears Related to Death / Murder:
It is seen that this category is the second category with the most fear drawing in all categories with a total of 74 (24 %) drawings. When the frequency distributions of the pictures in this category are taken into consideration, it is seen that the most fear objects are The murder of him/herself (12), The murder of her/his parents (11), To kidnapped (11), Disappearance (9), Thieves (8), Gun (7), Falling down from height (5), Traffic accident (4), Get a whipping (4), Be abandoned (3), respectively.

Picture 4. (8 years old / female)
A shark was drawn as a fear object. She drew fear that she would be killed as a fear object. It was painted with black, red and blue colors. She explained what she feared by stating: "I've seen it on TV, some guys are killing girls'' (P.307).
Picture 5. (10 years old/ male) The murder of his parents was drawn as a fear object. It was painted with black, red and green colors. He explained what she feared by stating: "I fear that ,one day, when I go home and I find my mother and father dead in blood" (P.205).
Picture 6. (9 years old/ male) European Journal of Educational Research769 To kidnapped was drawn as a fear object. He feared being kidnapped as a fear object. It was painted with black, red and blue colors. He explained what she feared by stating: "I fear that the people I don't know will kidnap me on the way home because I've seen such news on TV" (P.93).

3.Categories About Fears of Imaginary Creatures and Super Natural Powers:
It is seen that this category is the third category with the most fear drawing in all categories with a total of 60 (19 %) drawings. When the frequency distributions of the pictures in this category are taken into consideration, it is seen that the most fear objects are Ghost (17), Bogle (9), Bugaboo (7), Zombi (6)  A bugaboo was drawn as a fear object. It was painted with brown, red, orange, black and yellow colors. She explained what she feared by stating: "If we misbehave, the bugaboos will come to our house" (P.101).

Categories About Dark and Night Fears:
It is seen that this category is the fourth category with the most fear drawing in all categories with a total of 51 (16 %) drawings. When the frequency distributions of the pictures in this category are taken into consideration, it is seen that the most fear objects are Dark (26), A bad dream/having a nightmare (12 ), Becoming lonely at home at night (6), Going out at night (4), Going to bed alone at night (3), respectively.
Picture 10. (9 years old/ female) Fearing from dark was drawn as a fear object. It was painted with red and black colors. She explained what she feared by stating: "I'm starting to be feared because the night is dark and scary" (P.298).
Picture 11. (9 years old/ male) Having a nightmare was drawn as a fear object. It was painted with red, brown, green, yellow, black and blue colors. He explained what she feared by stating: "Some nights I'm so scary, I'm having bad dreams and I want to scream, I want to wake up, but I can't sound" (P.286).
Becoming lonely at home at night was drawn as a fear object. It was painted with brown, black and orange colors. She explained what she feared by stating: "I don't want to sleep alone at night, I'm so scared" (P.296).

Categories About Fears of Natural Disasters:
It is seen that this category is the fifth category with the most fear drawing in all categories with a total of 33 (19 %) drawings. When the frequency distributions of the pictures in this category are taken into consideration, it is seen that the most fear objects are Earthquake (9), Fire (7), Tsunami (6), Flood (4), Thunder /lightning (3), Storm (3), Hail (1), respectively.
Picture 13.(9 years old/ male) An earthquake was drawn as a fear object. It was painted with blue, yellow, red, orange and green colors. He explained what she feared by stating: " God forbid! If an earthquake occurs, our house is destroyed and we have to live on the street" (P.80).

772TALU / Reflections of Fears of Children to Drawings
A fire was drawn as a fear object. It was painted with blue, red, green, and purple colors. She explained what she feared by stating: "Recently a fire broke out in a house in our neighborhood and the fire brigade came and saved the children at the last minute" (P.74).
Picture 15. (10 years old/ male) A tsunami was drawn as a fear object. It was painted with blue, yellow and orange colors. He explained what she feared by stating: "In the documentary I watched huge waves destroyed houses and people" (P.86).

Categories of Fears About Medicine:
It is seen that this category is the sixth category with the most fear drawing in all categories with a total of 9 (3 %) drawings. When the frequency distributions of the pictures in this category are taken into consideration, it is seen that the most fear objects are Dentist (4), Having an injection (3), Circumciser (1), Doctor (1), respectively.

Picture16. (8 years old/ female)
A dentist was drawn as a fear object. It was painted with blue, black, brown and orange colors. She explained what she feared by stating: "Recently, my mother took me to the dentist and the dentist pull out a tooth" (P.55).

Picture17. (9 years old/ female)
Having an injection was drawn as a fear object. It was painted with dark blue, red, orange and purple colors. She explained what she feared by stating: "I never like person who gives injections because they hurt me a lot" (P.49).

Picture18. (7years old/ male)
A pretomist was drawn as a fear object. It was painted with blue, dark blue, green, orange and purple colors. He explained what she feared by stating: "I'm going to be circumcised this summer, so I'm so scared" (P.41). Table 3 presents information on the distribution of fear-themed drawings by 6-10 year-old children in terms of gender. According to Table 3, in the first category of 'Fears about animals', 46 of the 87 drawings belong to females and 41 of them belong to male participants. In this category, females are more scared than males. In the second category of 'Dangerous situation and fears related to death / murder', 41 of the 74 drawings belong to females and 33 of them belong to male participants. In this category, females are more scared than males. In the third category of 'Fears about imaginary creatures and supernatural powers', 29 of the 60 drawings belong to females and 31 of them belong to male participants. In this category, there is little difference between males and females, but fears of male participants are more than females'. In the fourth category of 'Dark and night fears', 28 of the 51 drawings belong to females and 23 of them belong to male participants. In this category, females are more scared than males. In the fifth category of 'Fears about natural disasters', 14 of the 33 drawings belong to females and 19 of them belong to male participants. In this category, males are more scared than females. In the sixth category of 'Fears about medicine', 3 of the 9 drawings belong to females and 6 of them belong to male participants. In this category, males are more scared than females. Table 4. Presents information on the distribution of fear-themed drawings by 6-10 year-old children in terms of age. According to Table 4, 55 participants in the 6 age group were afraid mostly 'animals' 21, while they afraid at least with the 'natural disasters' 2 and 'medicine' 2,62 participants in the 7 age group were afraid mostly 'animals' 20, while they afraid at least with the 'medicine' 2,. 66 participants in the 8 age group were afraid mostly 'animals' 18, while they afraid at least with the 'medicine' 3, 64 participants in the 9 age group were afraid mostly 'dangerous situation and fears related to death / murder' 16, while they afraid at least with 'medicine' 3. 67 participants in the 10 age group were afraid mostly 'dangerous situation and fears related to death / murder' 17, while they afraid at least with 'medicine' 1.
The frequency and percentage values of the classification for the colors they prefer to use in the fear-themed drawings of 6-10 year old children are given in Table 5. As shown in Table 5, 299 of the colors used in the fear-themed drawings of children aged between 6 and 10 years were black, 149 were red, 101 were blue, 92 were yellow, 87 were green, 68 were brown, 67 were orange, 38 were dark blue 35 were purple, 15 were gray and 5 were pink.

Conclusion
The results of this study aimed to investigate the fears of 6-10 year-old children through the drawings they drew were involved under six categories. Information on the results obtained with regard to the is given below.
1. It was determined that the children gave place to the drawings mostly about ''animals'' as objects of fear. In these drawings, it was seen that drawing such as snake, dog, shark, spider, dinosaur, bear, lion and scorpion are mostly involved.
2. In the drawings, it was found that children give place to drawings related to ''dangerous situation and fears related to death / murder'' secondly. In these drawings, it was seen that drawings such as the murder of him/herself, the murder of her/his parents, to kidnapped, disappearance, thieves were in the majority.
3. In the drawings, it was found that children give place to drawings related to ''fears of imaginary creatures and super natural powers ''thirdly. It was seen that drawings such as ghost, bogle, bugaboo, zombi, hell, alien, momo were in the majority.
4. In the drawings, it was found that children give place to drawings related to'' dark and night fears'' fourthly. It was seen that drawings such as dark, a bad dream/having a night mare, becoming lonely at home at night, going out at night, going to bed alone at night were in the majority.
5. In the drawings, it was found that children give place to drawings related to ''fears of natural disasters'' fifthly. It was seen that drawings such as earthquake, fire, tsunami, flood, thunder /lightning, storm were in the majority.
6. In the drawings, it was found that children give place to drawings related to ''fears of medicine'' fifthly. It was seen that drawings such as dentist, having an injection, circumciser, doctor were in the majority.
In addition, it was seen that the participants prefer color such as black, red, blue, yellow, green and brown color in their color preferences in the drawings of fear themed drawings.

Discussion
It is seen that the findings obtained from this research, which examines the examination of the fears of children between the ages of 6 and 10 by means of the drawings, indicate the following points.
In the drawings of children aged 9-10 years, the most fear of objects is related to animals. Especially fear of snakes is a common fear object in all age group children. This situation can be interpreted by the collective unconsciousness that Jung put forward in the related literature and it is stated that this fear is inherited and consists of a group of hidden images transferred from the ancestors to the individual. According to this view, for example, an individual does not need to see a snake to fear the snake. The tendency to fear snake is transmitted to the individual as a result of generations of experiences of our ancestors and indirectly affects behaviors (Gectan, 1990;Yanbasti, 1990;Hancerlioglu, 1988). On the other hand, it has been reported that there are many animal fears in children in related literature and there are several studies conducted at different times. For example, Jersild & Holmes (1935), Muris & Merckelbach (2000), Robinson et al. (1991) have found that fear of snakes is the most common form of fear among the most intense fear classifications in their studies. Zulliger (2005) in his research on 400 females and 400 males between 2 and 18 years of age, it is seen that the most fear type belongs to animals and among animal species; snake is the most important fear object. In a comparative study conducted on children by Oghii (2015) in Moldova and Turkey, it was found that animal fear (snakes, insects, dogs etc.) is among the 10 most common fear types. On the other hand, in our research, it can be stated that most of the participants in their drawings are from species that do not have the chance to come across in their daily lives and this situation can arise from movies, documentaries and books they read. In our research, it is seen that there are fears related to dangerous situation and fears related to death / murder as the most common fear category. This finding is consistent with the literature. In a study conducted by Oghii (2015) in Moldova and Turkey, it was found that death of parents' and death of ''oneself '' are the most common fear types. In a study by Serim (2010), it was found that among the most frequently repeated fears in 8, 9 and 10 year-olds, 'fears of the death of one of my family' and the 'death of one of my relatives' are involved. On the other hand, Bal (2010) found that the most common fear among primary school students period was the fear of losing parents. In the third category of the study, it is seen that the findings related to the fears about imaginary creatures and supernatural powers are compatible with the literature. In studies conducted with children with different age groups related to fear by Aytuna (1976), Babaoglu (2016), Bakircioglu (2002), Gunce (1971), Muris and Merckelbach (2000), Muriset al. (2002), Robinson et.al (1991), Serim (2010), Snipstad et al.(2005), Senol (2006), Ovec (2012) and Zulliger (2005), it is found that this kind of fears start in children at 6 years and continue until 12-13 years old. On the other hand, we can say that the fears in this category of our research have increased with age and are consistent with the relevant literature. According to Gunce (1971) and Karakas (1995), the improvement in sensitivity towards fear is related to many other aspects of child development. As the child's imagination develops, he begins to fear more from the dangerous situations he imagines.
On the other hand, it was found that the fears of dark and night and the fears of being lonely in this category were seen intensively in all age groups. These results are also supported by the related literature. The fear of night and darkness is a common form of fear that is expressed by both children and adults. In addition to avoidance and conditioning, one of the factors causing fear is anxiety. The fear of anxiety is most commonly found in the dark and when you are falling asleep. Night and darkness have been identified with the bad, sinister and dangerous since the beginning of human history. As children grow up, they learn this matching inadvertently. The scariest thing about the dark is that our senses are not enough to see and control the surroundings. At the same time, dark subconscious triggers thoughts, fantasies, and dreams. Children want to know, see, touch and control to feel safe, darkness is the most important factor that hinders this (Bakanay, 2007;Burkovik & Tan, 2006).
When the findings obtained in the fifth category of fears about natural disasters are examined, it is seen that the results are consistent with the relevant literature. In this context, results of this study are relevant with other studies conducted by Gunce (1971), Aytuna (1976), Robinson et al.(1991), Christie and MacMullin (1998), Muris & Merckelbach (2000), Sargin (2001), Snipstad et al. (2005), Elmaci (2006), Bal (2010), Oghii (2015) and Babaoglu (2016). On the other hand, it was found that the fears of natural disasters in this category increased with age.For this situation, it can be said that, with the improvement of age, children learn these kinds of natural disasters experiencing in their lives or watching at TV. If children are exposed to one of the these event, it can be said that its effect can continue in their future lives as permanent fear trace.
When the findings obtained in the sixth category of fears about medicine are examined, it is seen that the results showed that children have still this fear type. However, in the past researches conducted by Christie & MacMullin (1998), Elmaci (2006), Maraguna & Eroglu (2013), Muris & Merckelbach (2000), Silverman, La Greca & Wasserstein (1995) and Snipstad et al. (2005), the number of this kind of fears are in tendency to decrease recently. We can evaluate this situation as a reflection of developments in medicine and specialization for children and innovative approaches in physician child communication.
When we evaluate the findings obtained by comparing the fear types obtained in our study according to gender and age variables, it is seen that there are a few differences in fear types among females and males. For example; in the fear types of animals, dangerous situation and death/murder, and fears about darkness and night, more fear objects at females' drawings than males' were found in the drawing. Fears related to natural disasters and medicine has been found to draw more fear objects in males' drawings. The number of fear objects related to fears about imaginary creatures and supernatural powers is similar in males' and females' drawings. This situation is important in terms of the fact that it can't be generalised for every kind of fear that females fear more than males.
The last finding evaluation of our research is related to the color preferences of the participant children in the painting of fear-themed drawings. The findings obtained in this section show that the children prefer black, red, blue, yellow, green and brown color. These findings are consistent with the relevant literature. In Guvenc (2005) study, children were asked the color they did not like the most, 45 % of them indicated black and colors which are similar to black.
When it was investigated that why they did not like, it was found that the children stated that black represented fear. Malchiodi (2005) also emphasized that excessive use of black reflects negative emotions. In a study by Oya and Ovec (2017), the most commonly used colors in the fear drawings were black, red, brown and yellow. Similar results were found in a study by Burkitt et al.(2009).

Suggestions
As a result of this study, the following suggestions are given.
 Drawing activity, which is a product of the child's emotions, thoughts and perceptual abilities, is also important in terms of presenting important information about the development and inner world of the child. In particular, parents and teachers sometimes support children in drawing, but, they should also be able to use the drawing consciously.  The film, television programs, fairy tale and story selection that may cause children to be afraid should be selective, they should be tried to gain by telling the child not to be banned directly.  Parents should not exaggerate what they see and hear, avoid from being a negative model by reflecting their fears to children or overreacting to simple situations.  Children should be given the opportunity to talk about the situations they fear, their fears should not be underestimated and they should not be mocked. Children should be informed about the real situation of the animals, events or objects that are fearful and in what ways they may be harmful and should be informed about the methods of protection.  It should be kept in mind that children's fears are also an indication of their emotional well-being.In this context, it is not necessary to refrain from resorting to an expert support in order to identify the situations of intense fear early on in children and resolve them before they become phobia.  Joint programs, trainings and discussion environments should be organized with trainers, managers and families to develop the right behavior model within the school and in the family regarding fears.  Teachers should know the developmental characteristics of children well, be a good observer and communicate with students who have fear problems and their families, and if necessary, such students should be directed to the school guidance service.  The school guidance services should identify the students with intense fear problems by using methods such as observation, fear survey scales, drawings, and individual and group interviews, various psycho-educational programs and drama activities should be arranged for these students.  In order for children to cope with their fears, basic needs such as love, interest, and trust should be met appropriately and a healthy communication with the child should be ensured. In particular, parents and teachers should never use fear against the child as a means of pressure, control, discipline, education and prevention.  Although drawing is not the only means of recognizing children, it provides more important and useful information about the child when used in conjunction with other data collection tools. For this reason, it is suggested that researchers should use different data collection tools together. Since this study is limited to 6-10 years old children, similar studies can be conducted in different age and cultural environments.