NCJ Number
219399
Journal
Journal of Forensic Psychology Practice Volume: 7 Issue: 1 Dated: 2007 Pages: 1-18
Date Published
2007
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This paper introduces the Query Grid (QG), a child-centered, multi-modal, and minimally leading interview tool as a suitable tool for use with clinical populations and court-involved children.
Abstract
Remaining in an active developmental state, the introduction of the Query Grid (QD) will be successful to the extent that the forensic child interviewer’s dual needs of eliciting a valid report while minimizing the child’s interview-related stress and helps to spark the development of complementary tools serving the same goals. Mental health and family law professionals alike are often faced with the dilemma of how best to elicit valid and reliable reports from children. Young children are highly suggestible and even skilled, well-intended interviewers can corrupt the data. The QG is a structured tool designed to assist interviewers in eliciting accurate reports from court-involved children ages 4 through 12 years old. The QG provides interviewers with a common, standardized means of entering the child’s world and eliciting his/her report without recourse to those methods known to be associated with bias and suggestibility. The QG prompts the child to acknowledge events associated with a spectrum of emotions as experienced in each of the environments or relationships in the child’s life. This paper describes the Query Grid as a leading interview tool suitable for use with clinical populations and court-involved children. Figures, notes, references