ERIC Number: EJ1436692
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024-Jul
Pages: 12
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0888-4080
EISSN: EISSN-1099-0720
Examining the Impact of Interviewer Rejections Following "Don't Know" Responses in Forensic Interviews of Alleged Preschool-Aged Victims of Abuse
Rolf Magnus Grung; Gunn-Astrid Baugerud; Ragnhild Klingenberg Røed; Miriam S. Johnson
Applied Cognitive Psychology, v38 n4 e4239 2024
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' "Don't know" responses in 114 forensic interviews and the children's responses to these rejections. Interviewer reactions were dichotomously coded as either interviewer acceptance (i.e., transitioning to the next logical question or formulating questions focusing on previously mentioned details) or interviewer rejection (i.e., repeating questions or making negative remarks about recall ability). The results showed that the interviewers accepted the children's "Don't know" responses 75.3% of the time and rejected them 24.7% of the time. When interviewers rejected the children's "Don't know" responses, 75.9% of the subsequent responses contradicted the children's initial responses. These results suggest that interviewer rejections following preschool-aged children's "Don't know" responses may be suggestive.
Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2191/en-us
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A