University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.
University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, UK.
Scand J Psychol. 2020 Jun;61(3):393-401. doi: 10.1111/sjop.12626. Epub 2020 Feb 13.
In the present experiment, we examined preschoolers' disclosures of a secret as a function of rapport building strategies used in Scandinavian field settings (verbal rapport building vs. prop rapport building), age in months (33-75 months) and question type (open-ended free recall invitation vs. suggestive questions). Fifty-three preschoolers (M = 60.5 months old, SD = 11.4) witnessed a researcher break a toy and were asked to keep the toy breakage a secret. The children were thereafter interviewed about the incident. Overall, 18.9% of the children disclosed the secret after an open-ended free recall invitation. The disclosure rate rose to 83% after the final phase of the interviews when questions containing suggestive details were asked of the children. Notably, we did not observe any significant effects as a function of manipulating rapport building strategy. A linear regression model showed that child age (in months) significantly predicted the amount of reported details, with younger preschoolers reporting fewer details compared to older preschoolers. Age also predicted the amount of correct details, but not the amount of incorrect details. No age differences were found with regard to children's disclosure tendencies or proportion of central details about the secret. Methodological limitations and practical implications will be addressed.
在本实验中，我们考察了学龄前儿童在斯堪的纳维亚田野环境中（言语建立关系策略与道具建立关系策略）、月龄（33-75 个月）和问题类型（开放式自由回忆邀请与提示性问题）下的秘密披露情况。53 名学龄前儿童（M=60.5 个月，SD=11.4）见证了一名研究人员打破一个玩具，并被要求对玩具的损坏保密。此后，研究人员对孩子们进行了关于该事件的访谈。总的来说，在开放式自由回忆邀请后，有 18.9%的孩子透露了秘密。在访谈的最后阶段，当向孩子们提出包含提示性细节的问题后，披露率上升到 83%。值得注意的是，我们没有观察到任何因操纵建立关系策略而产生的显著效果。线性回归模型表明，儿童年龄（以月为单位）显著预测了报告的详细程度，与年龄较大的学龄前儿童相比，年龄较小的学龄前儿童报告的细节较少。年龄也预测了正确细节的数量，但不能预测错误细节的数量。在儿童的披露倾向或关于秘密的核心细节的比例方面，没有发现年龄差异。我们将讨论方法学限制和实际影响。
