Quas Jodi A, Stolzenberg Stacia N, Lyon Thomas D
Department of Psychology and Social Behavior, School of Social Ecology, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA.
School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ 85004, USA.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2018 Feb;166:266-279. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2017.08.014. Epub 2017 Sep 23.
This study examined the utility of two interview instructions designed to overcome children's reluctance to disclose transgressions: eliciting a promise from children to tell the truth and the putative confession (telling children that a suspect "told me everything that happened and wants you to tell the truth"). The key questions were whether the instructions increased disclosure in response to recall questions and in response to recognition questions that were less or more explicit about transgressions and whether instructions were differentially effective with age. A total sample of 217 4- to 9-year-old maltreated and comparable non-maltreated children and a stranger played with a set of toys. For half of the children within each group, two of the toys appeared to break while they were playing. The stranger admonished secrecy. Shortly thereafter, children were questioned about what happened in one of three interview conditions. Some children were asked to promise to tell the truth. Others were given the putative confession, and still others received no interview instructions. When coupled with recall questions, the promise was effective at increasing disclosures only among older children, whereas the putative confession was effective regardless of age. Across interview instruction conditions, recognition questions that did not suggest wrongdoing elicited few additional transgression disclosures, whereas recognition questions that explicitly mentioned wrongdoing elicited some true reports but also some false alarms. No differences in disclosure emerged between maltreated and non-maltreated children. Results highlight the potential benefits and limitations of different interviewing approaches when questioning reluctant children.
要求儿童承诺讲真话以及假定供述（告诉儿童有一名嫌疑人“把发生的一切都告诉了我，希望你也讲真话”）。关键问题在于，这些指导方式是否能增加儿童对回忆问题以及对违规行为不太明确或更明确的识别问题的披露，以及这些指导方式对不同年龄的儿童是否有不同的效果。共有217名4至9岁受过虐待和未受过虐待的可比儿童样本与一名陌生人一起玩一套玩具。在每组儿童中，有一半儿童在玩耍时，其中两件玩具似乎坏了。陌生人告诫他们要保密。此后不久，儿童在三种访谈条件之一中被问及发生了什么。一些儿童被要求承诺讲真话。另一些儿童被告知有假定供述，还有一些儿童没有接受访谈指导。当与回忆问题结合使用时，承诺只对年龄较大的儿童增加披露有效，而假定供述无论年龄大小都有效。在所有访谈指导条件下，未暗示有不当行为的识别问题几乎没有引发更多的违规行为披露，而明确提及不当行为的识别问题引发了一些真实报告，但也有一些误报。受过虐待和未受过虐待的儿童在披露方面没有差异。研究结果凸显了在询问不情愿的儿童时不同访谈方法的潜在益处和局限性。
