Kathleen J. Sternberg

Effects of Domestic Violence on Children's Behavior Problems and Depression

The Childrens Depression Inventory, Child Behavior Checklist, and Youth Self-Report were completed by mothers, fathers, and their 8- to 12-year-old children to assess the effects of various types of domestic violence on childrens behavior problems and depression. One hundred and ten Israeli children from lower-class families were identified through social service records. Thirty-three of the children had been physically abused by their parents within the last 6 months, 16 had witnessed spouse abuse, 30 had been both victims and witnesses of domestic violence, and 31 had experienced no known domestic violence. Overall, domestic violence had effects on child development that varied in magnitude and nature depending on the type of domestic violence and who reported the information about the childs adjustment. During the past 30 years, domestic violence and its effects on childrens development have received considerable attention in the scientific and popular media (Cicchetti & Carlson, 1989). Although there is some evidence that children who are victims and/or witnesses of domestic violence have more social and emotional problems than their nonabused counterparts, findings have varied across studies. Because of the difficulties in recruiting samples, investigators have usually studied children from violent families that are characterized by multiple stressors (e.g., histories of drug and alcohol abuse, single parenting, shelter residence, and poverty) and multiple forms of maltreatment (i.e., neglect, sexual abuse, spouse abuse, and child abuse; Aber & Cicchetti, 1984). Unfortunately, it has been difficult to systematically measure these stresses and to evaluate how they exacerbate, moderate, or mask the effects of maltreatment on

Effects of Introductory Style on Children's Abilities To Describe Experiences of Sexual Abuse.

OBJECTIVE The goal of this study was to evaluate the relative effectiveness of two rapport-building techniques for eliciting information from children who made allegations of sexual abuse. METHOD Fourteen interviewers conducted 51 investigations of child sexual abuse with children ranging from 4.5 to 12.9 years of age. In 25 of the investigations, interviewers used a script including many open-ended utterances to establish rapport, whereas in 26 of the investigations the same interviewers used a rapport-building script involving many direct questions. Both rapport-building scripts took about 7 minutes to complete. All children were asked the same open-ended question to initiate the substantive phase of the interview. RESULTS Children who had been trained in the open-ended condition provided 2 1/2 times as many details and words in response to the first substantive utterance as did children in the direct introduction condition. Children in the open-ended condition continued to respond more informatively to open-ended utterances in the later (unscripted) portion of the interview. Two-thirds of the children mentioned the core details of the incident in their responses to the first substantive utterance and a further 20% mentioned core details more vaguely. CONCLUSIONS These results demonstrate that children respond more informatively to an open-ended invitation when they have previously been trained to answer such questions rather than more focused questions. These results demonstrate the sensitivity of children to the goals and expectations of forensic interviewers. Structured interview protocols also increase the amount of information provided by young interviewees.

Effects of Investigative Utterance Types on Israeli Children's Responses

This field study is concerned with the effect of interviewing style on childrens reports of sexual abuse. Detailed psycholinguistic analyses of 22 front-line interviews of 5- to 11-year-old Israeli children by a number of interviewers focused on the length (number of words) and richness (number of new details) provided in responses to different types of utterances by the interviewers. As predicted, open-ended invitations yielded significantly longer and more detailed responses than directive, leading, or suggestive utterances, regardless of age. The younger children provided briefer and less detailed responses, however. These findings underscore the value of open-ended prompts in investigative interviews.

Use of a structured investigative protocol enhances young children's responses to free-recall prompts in the course of forensic interviews

One hundred alleged victims of child sexual abuse (ages 4-12 years; M = 8.1 years) were interviewed by police investigators about their alleged experiences. Half of the children were interviewed using the National Institute of Child Health and Human Developments structured interview protocol, whereas the other children--matched with respect to their age, relationship with the alleged perpetrator, and seriousness of the alleged offenses--were interviewed using standard interview practices. Protocol-guided interviews elicited more information using open-ended prompts and less information using option-posing and suggestive questions than did standard interviews; there were no age differences in the amount of information provided in response to open-ended invitations. In 89% of the protocol interviews, children made their preliminary allegations in response to open-ended prompts, compared with 36% in the standard interviews.

Age differences in young children's responses to open-ended invitations in the course of forensic interviews

To elucidate age differences in responses to free-recall prompts (i.e., invitations and cued invitations) and focused recognition prompts (i.e., option-posing and suggestive utterances), the authors examined 130 forensic interviews of 4- to 8-year-old alleged victims of sexual abuse. There were age differences in the total number of details elicited as well as in the number of details elicited using each of the different types of prompts, especially invitations. More details were elicited from older than from younger children in response to all types of prompts, but there were no age differences in the proportion of details (about 50%) elicited using invitations. Cued invitations elicited 18% of the total details, and the number of details elicited using cued invitations increased with age. Action-based cues consistently elicited more details than other types of cues.

The Memorandum of Good Practice : theory versus application

OBJECTIVE The goal of this study was to evaluate the quality of investigative interviews in England and Wales since implementation of the Memorandum of Good Practice (MOGP), which specified how forensic interviews of alleged child abuse victims should be conducted. METHOD Transcripts of 119 videotaped interviews of alleged victims between the ages of 4 and 13 years were obtained from 13 collaborating police forces. Trained raters then classified the types of prompts used by the investigators to elicit substantive information from the children, and tabulated the number of forensically relevant details provided by the children in each response. RESULTS Like their counterparts in the United States, Israel, and Sweden, forensic interviewers in England and Wales relied heavily on option-posing prompts, seldom using open-ended utterances to elicit information from the children. Nearly 40% of the information obtained was elicited using option-posing and suggestive prompts, which are known to elicit less reliable information than open-ended prompts do. CONCLUSION Despite the clarity and specificity of the MOGP, its implementation appears to have had less effect on the practices of forensic interviewers in the field than was hoped. Further work should focus on ways of training interviewers to implement the superior practices endorsed by the MOGP and similar professional guidelines.

The Relation Between Investigative Utterance Types and the Informativeness of Child. Witnesses

Researchers have previously shown that, at least in Israeli investigative interviews, open-ended invitations yield significantly longer and more detailed responses from young witnesses than directive, leading, or suggestive utterances. Detailed psycholinguistic analyses of 45 interviews of 4- to 12-year-old children by police investigators in the United States confirmed that, as in Israel, invitations yielded longer and richer responses than more focused interviewer utterances. The superiority of invitations was greater when the children reported experiencing three or more, rather than only one, incidents of abuse. Invitations were rarely used, however, and the investigators failed to elicit more information from children who reported multiple incidents of abuse than from children who reported only one incident.

The Effects of Intensive Training and Ongoing Supervision on the Quality of Investigative Interviews With Alleged Sex Abuse Victims

Four distinct strategies were employed to train 21 experienced forensic interviewers to interview alleged sex abuse victims (M = 9.20 years of age) in accordance with professionally recommended practices. The structure and informativeness of the 96 interviews they conducted following training were compared with the structure and informativeness of 96 matched interviews conducted by the same interviewers in the 6 months prior to the training. Didactic workshops and instruction in the utilization of highly structured presubstantive interview procedures had little effect on the number of open-ended prompts used to elicit information or on the amount of substantive information elicited in this way. By contrast, intensive training in the use of a highly structured interview protocol, followed by continuing supervision in the form of monthly day-long seminars, supplemented in some cases by detailed individual feedback on recent interviews, yielded dramatic improvements on these measures of interview quality.

Is Ongoing Feedback Necessary to Maintain The Quality of Investigative Interviews With Allegedly Abused Children

Thirty-seven 4- to 12-year-old alleged victims of sexual abuse were interviewed using the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development investigative interview guide by 8 experienced forensic investigators who received regular supervision, including timely feedback on their ongoing interviews. These interviews were matched and compared with 37 interviews conducted by the same investigators immediately following termination of the supervision and feedback phase. After the supervision ended, interviewers used fewer open-ended prompts and thus elicited less information from recall, instead relying more heavily on option-posing and suggestive prompts, which are less likely to elicit accurate information. These results suggest that ongoing supervision and feedback may be necessary to maintain desirable interview practices.

Conducting investigative interviews of alleged sexual abuse victims.

OBJECTIVES There were two aims: First, to describe the factors that influence childrens competence and second, to discuss ways in which investigative interviewers can maximize the quality and quantity of information they obtain from alleged witnesses and victims. METHOD No new research is described in this paper. Rather, the authors provide a focused review of the relevant literature designed to be maximally useful for practitioners. CONCLUSIONS Children are often the only available sources of information about possible abusive experiences Research has shown that children can, in fact, be remarkably competent informants, although the quality and quantity of the information they provide is greatly influenced by the ways in which they are interviewed. This article describes ways in which investigative interviewers can maximize the amount and quality of information they elicit from alleged victims.