Abstract
When a child, lying on its back, is undergoing dental treatment with its mother standing by, how the child glances at the dentist, the dental hygienist and the mother is an interesting subject for study. In the present study, the eye movements of the little patients were measured while each of the subjects was presented with a photo panel showing the faces of the three, and the measurements were analyzed. The subjects were divided into two groups. One group consisted of those children who immediately looked at the photo of their mothers in the eye (Group A); the other group, those who did not (Group B). The results obtained by analysis of the measured eye movements were compared between the two groups. Furthermore, to find out differences in personality traits between the two groups, a multivariate analysis was performed using Hayashi's quantification theory type II. The results were examined to seek relevance to the results of the Takagi-Sakamoto juvenile personality test.
The findings were as follows:
1. The largest number of the child subjects made primary seeing was with the dentist, followed by “others”, the mother and the dental hygienist in that order.
2. The duration of eye contact was longest with the dentist, followed by the hygienist, mother and “other”. The average length of glances was 902.7ms.
3. The frequency of glances was largest toward the dentist, followed by the hygienist, the mother and “others”. The average number of times was 7.2.
4. The scanning pattern of the gaze was 51.1 % for Group A and 48.9% for Group B.
5. With the level of significance being 5%, Group A subjects fixed their eyes on the hygienist for a significantly long duration, as opposed to the Group B subjects fixing their significance, the number of glances being significantly larger in Group B than in Group A.
6. As a result of the analysis by Hayashi's quantification theory type II, the correlation ratio was worked out at 0.453 and the overall correct rate,66.7%.
7. The items with 0.200 and agove in terms of the partial correlation coefficient in the T-S personality test, which affects differentiation between the two groups, included nervous temperament, emotional stability and aggression.
