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Interviewing Young Children About Body Touch and Handling

NCJ Number
166296
Author(s)
M S Steward; D S Steward
Date Published
1996
Length
242 pages
Annotation
Children aged 3-6 years were interviewed following a scheduled pediatric clinic visit to assess the efficacy of two independent variables -- interview strategy and number of interviews -- on the accuracy, completeness, and consistency of children's reports.
Abstract
Four experimental interviews were developed: a verbal interview and three interviews enhanced with anatomically detailed cues, photographs, and props. Initially, 130 children were interviewed after the clinic event. One month later, 124 were again interviewed, and 74 were interviewed a third time after 6 months. Initially, children's spontaneous reports of body touch were highly accurate, but sparse. After a 1-month delay, accuracy and completeness dropped significantly; accuracy was stable from 1 to 6 months; completeness rebounded at 6 months. Three-year-olds' reports of body touch were less complete and less consistent, but rarely less accurate than those of older age groups. After 1-month and 6-month delays, consistently reported information was more accurate than new information. Anatomically detailed cues increased completeness of reporting of total body and genital touch. Photos elicited more useful information for identification of persons and places than did questions, and medical props initially offered no advantage and subsequently led to errors. Tabular data and chapter references