When forensic interviewers reject children's "Don't know" responses, either by repeating questions or pressuring the children to provide different responses, children may change their subsequent responses. The primary objective of the current study was to examine interviewer reactions following preschool-aged alleged abuse victims'…

In the Netherlands, there is currently no quality standard for conducting child forensic interviews in Child Protective Services (CPS). The lack of such standard causes concern regarding the quality of these interviews, which are used to determine the child's safety and implementing treatment. In the current study, we implemented the National…

Confirmation bias is a universal characteristic of human cognition, with consequences for information processing and reasoning in everyday situations as well as in professional work such as forensic interviewing. Cognitive measures such as general intelligence are also related to personality traits, but there is a lack of research on personality…

This study investigated the narrative coherence of children's accounts elicited in multiple forensic interviews. Transcriptions of 56 police interviews with 28 children aged 3-14 years alleging physical and sexual abuse were coded for markers of completeness, consistency and connectedness. We found that multiple interviews increased the…

This study examined the quality of forensic interviews conducted by specially trained police officers in the Norwegian Barnahus between 2015 and 2017, using the sequential interview (SI) model, a Norwegian version of the extended interview model that has not previously been studied. Two hundred and seven interviews of alleged abused preschool…

Years of psychological research has demonstrated that the use of investigative interviewing methods based on up-to-date scientific evidence is important to ensure the reliability of child witnesses' statements. Ideally, professionals working with children are equipped with knowledge of memory functioning, as erroneous beliefs may impact how they…

Because schools are a customary location to conduct child abuse and neglect investigative interviews, this study examines survey results from 109 principals in Tennessee to determine if the Title I status of a school or years of experience as a principal predict awareness of DCS interview policies and an ability to accurately interpret policies…

This article deals with narratives of traumatic experiences of parental violence in childhood, told by adult narrators in the context of clinical adult attachment interviews. The study rests on a corpus of interviews with 20 patients suffering from fibromyalgia, who were interviewed in the context of psychodynamic psychotherapy. Nine of the…

Child welfare workers routinely use schools as a location to interview children who are the alleged victims of child abuse and neglect. This study analyzed the survey responses from 109 principals in [Study sate] to determine if differences existed between how high school and non-high school principals have their school staff respond to interview…

Previous research has described a discourse where men working within Early Childhood Education and Care are viewed as potential pedophiles. The aim of this study is to describe and analyze how men, working in Swedish preschools, position themselves in relation to this "pedophile discourse." Twenty-five men were interviewed about their…

Globally, children with intellectual disabilities are at an increased risk of being victims of maltreatment compared to those without disabilities. Among the children who do disclose the abuse, limitations with communication and working memory can result in their allegation being perceived as not credible. There are several evidence-based…

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with health-risk behaviors in general samples of adults and adolescents. The current study examined the association between ACEs and these behaviors among a high-risk sample of early adolescents. Five hundred fifteen 9- to 11-year-old children placed in foster care due to maltreatment were…

Accumulating evidence suggests that early adversity is linked to methylation of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) gene, "NR3C1," which is a key regulator of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. Yet no prior work has considered the contribution of methylation of "NR3C1" to emerging behavior problems and psychopathology in…

Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a global public health problem with major consequences for the individual child and society. An earlier Swedish study showed that the school nurses did not initially talk about nor mention CSA as one form of child abuse. For the child to receive adequate support, the disclosure is a precondition and is dependent on an…

The human being who is accepted as a good being in need of creation is the result of the interaction that he has established with his surroundings. He is ignorant when he is considered not to be equipped with the necessary information for himself when he is born and is making efforts to obtain this information. Firstly, these informants, which…