The Utility of Direct Questions in Eliciting Subjective Content from Children Disclosing Sexual Abuse
Background: Children alleging sexual abuse rarely exhibit emotion when disclosing, but they may be able to describe their subjective reactions to abuse if asked.Objective: This study examined the extent to which different types of questions in child sexual abuse interviews elicited subjective content, namely emotional reactions, cognitive content, and physical sensations.Participants and Setting: The study included transcripts of 205 Child Advocacy Center interviews with 4- to 12-year-old children alleging sexual abuse.Methods: We coded questions for question type, distinguishing among invitations, wh- questions, yes/no and forced-choice questions, and suggestive questions. We coded both questions and answers for whether they referenced subjective content.Results: When questions did not reference subjective content, the most productive questions were invitations, though they elicited subjective content less than 5% of the time. When questions specifically referenced subjective content, children were likely to explicitly mention such content, particularly in response to “how feel” and “what think” questions. Children's responsiveness and productivity was enhanced by requests to elaborate on their subjective responses, and both emotional and physical reactions could be elicited. There was little evidence of non-responsiveness or counter intuitive reactions to abuse. Younger children were less likely than older children to provide subjective responses to questions that did not reference subjective content, but were no less likely to do so when asked questions with subjective content.Conclusions: Children, even young children, can be successfully encouraged to provide subjective content about sexual abuse, particularly when free recall questions are supplemented with “how feel” or “what think” questions
Year of publication: |
2019
|
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Authors: | Stolzenberg, Stacia |
Other Persons: | Williams, Shanna (contributor) ; McWilliams, Kelly (contributor) ; Liang, Catherine (contributor) ; Lyon, Thomas D. (contributor) |
Publisher: |
[2019]: [S.l.] : SSRN |
Saved in:
freely available
Extent: | 1 Online-Ressource (37 p) |
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Type of publication: | Book / Working Paper |
Language: | English |
Notes: | In: Forthcoming, Child Abuse & Neglect Nach Informationen von SSRN wurde die ursprüngliche Fassung des Dokuments March 1, 2019 erstellt |
Source: | ECONIS - Online Catalogue of the ZBW |
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012891435
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