A drawing is worth a thousand words : analyzing children’s projective techniques with machine learning

Simple item page
dc.contributor.MentorEdo, María
dc.contributor.MentorSosa Escudero, Walter
dc.creator.AutorBanfi, Catalina
dc.date.accessioned2025-06-24T17:51:19Z
dc.date.available2025-06-24T17:51:19Z
dc.date.issued2024-12
dc.descriptionFil: Banfi, Catalina. Universidad de San Andrés. Departamento de Economía; Argentina.
dc.description.abstractChild maltreatment is a critical global issue with long-lasting physical, psychological, and social consequences. A major challenge in addressing this problem is substantial underreporting, as most cases occur within the home, preventing timely intervention and leaving many children without support. While detection tools exist, they are typically applied only to cases already within the system, resulting in a reactive rather than proactive approach to identifying at-risk children. The main objective of this thesis is to develop a machine learning algorithm to proactively enhance the detection of child maltreatment through the analysis of projective techniques applied to primary school children. Using data from an Inter-American Development Bank project, the study automates the evaluation of graphical indicators in children’s drawings, simulating psychologists’ cognitive processes to generate risk alerts and identify cases requiring further psychodiagnostic evaluation. The resulting algorithm achieved high accuracy metrics, enabling large-scale implementation while maintaining efficiency. The intervention costs approximately $2 USD per child and significantly reduces future costs associated with the long-term consequences of child maltreatment. This proposal, designed as a public policy for primary schools, trains teachers to identify key indicators in drawings, embedding detection into the educational system and optimizing resource allocation.
dc.formatapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.urihttps://repositorio.udesa.edu.ar/handle/10908/25358
dc.languageeng
dc.publisherUniversidad de San Andrés. Departamento de Economía
dc.rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.rightshttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
dc.titleA drawing is worth a thousand words : analyzing children’s projective techniques with machine learning
dc.typeTesis
dc.typeinfo:eu-repo/semantics/masterThesis
dc.typeinfo:ar-repo/semantics/tesis de maestría
dc.typeinfo:eu-repo/semantics/updatedVersion
Files
Original bundle
Thumbnail Image
Name:
[P][W] T. M. Eco. Banfi, Catalina.pdf
Size:
1.81 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Download
Collections
Tesis de Maestría en Economía