Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2011 Dec;110(4):520-38. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2011.05.006. Epub 2011 Jul 23.
This study examined event memory and suggestibility in 3- to 16-year-olds involved in forensic investigations of child maltreatment. A total of 322 children were interviewed about a play activity with an unfamiliar adult. Comprehensive measures of individual differences in trauma-related psychopathology and cognitive functioning were administered. Sexually and/or physically abused children obtained higher dissociation scores than neglected children, and sexually abused children were more likely to obtain a diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder than physically abused children, neglected children, and children with no substantiated abuse histories. Overall, older children and children with better cognitive functioning produced more correct information and fewer memory errors. Abuse status per se did not significantly predict children's memory or suggestibility whether considered alone or in interaction with age. However, among highly dissociative children, more trauma symptoms were associated with greater inaccuracy, whereas trauma symptoms were not associated with increased error for children who were lower in dissociative tendencies. Implications of the findings for understanding eyewitness memory in maltreated children are discussed.
本研究考察了涉及儿童虐待法医调查的 3 至 16 岁儿童的事件记忆和暗示性。共有 322 名儿童接受了关于与陌生成年人进行游戏活动的访谈。还对与创伤相关的精神病理学和认知功能的个体差异进行了综合评估。与忽视儿童相比，性虐待和身体虐待儿童的分离得分更高，与身体虐待儿童、忽视儿童和没有确凿虐待史的儿童相比，性虐待儿童更有可能被诊断为创伤后应激障碍。总的来说，年龄较大的儿童和认知功能较好的儿童产生了更多正确的信息和较少的记忆错误。无论单独考虑还是与年龄相互作用，虐待状况本身并不能显著预测儿童的记忆或暗示性。然而，在高度分离的儿童中，更多的创伤症状与更大的不准确性相关，而对于分离倾向较低的儿童，创伤症状与错误增加无关。讨论了这些发现对理解受虐待儿童目击记忆的意义。
