University of Southern California, Gould School of Law, 699 Exposition Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90089, United States.
University of Southern California, Gould School of Law, 699 Exposition Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90089, United States.
Child Abuse Negl. 2022 Jul;129:105675. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2022.105675. Epub 2022 May 25.
Forensic interviewers are taught to ask children invitations using the word "time" to refer to a specific episode (e.g., "Tell me about the last time he touched you."). However, children may interpret the word "time" as requesting conventional temporal information rather than narrative information.
We examined the rates at which children misinterpreted invitations containing the word "time," comparing invitations asking "about" an episode to invitations asking what "happened" during an episode.
This study examined 827 forensic interviews of children aged 4 to 15 (M = 8.1 years) in cases of suspected sexual abuse.
We identified 1405 invitations using the word "time," and coded them for whether they asked "about" or what "happened." Children's responses were coded for whether they gave exclusively conventional temporal information, expressed temporal ignorance or uncertainty, requested clarification, or gave a don't know response.
Children responded to About invitations with higher rates of conventional temporal information (11%) than Happened invitations (6%, p < .001). Children were also more inclined to express uncertainty about temporal information when asked About invitations (p = .04). In a third of the cases where children exhibited misunderstanding, interviewers failed to clarify their intentions.
Forensic interviewers can reduce children's unresponsiveness to invitations by using Happened invitations that overcome the ambiguity associated with "time."
取证访谈员被教导使用“time”这个词来询问孩子邀请，以指代特定事件（例如，“告诉我最后一次他碰你的时候。”）。然而，孩子可能会将“time”一词解释为请求常规时间信息，而不是叙事信息。
我们检查了孩子们误解包含“time”一词的邀请的比率，将询问“关于”一个事件的邀请与询问在一个事件期间发生了什么的邀请进行了比较。
这项研究检查了 827 名年龄在 4 至 15 岁（M=8.1 岁）的儿童的取证访谈，这些儿童涉嫌遭受性虐待。
我们确定了 1405 个使用“time”一词的邀请，并对它们是询问“关于”还是询问“发生了什么”进行了编码。孩子们的回答被编码为他们是否只提供了常规的时间信息，表达了对时间的无知或不确定性，请求澄清，或给出了“不知道”的回答。
孩子们对“About”邀请的回答中传统时间信息的比例（11%）高于“happened”邀请（6%，p<0.001）。当被问及“About”邀请时，孩子们也更倾向于表达对时间信息的不确定性（p=0.04）。在三分之一的情况下，孩子们表现出误解，而访谈员未能澄清他们的意图。
取证访谈员可以通过使用克服与“time”相关的歧义的“Happened”邀请，减少孩子们对邀请的不回应。
