NCJ Number
195475
Journal
Law and Human Behavior Volume: 26 Issue: 3 Dated: June 2002 Pages: 285-313
Date Published
2002
Length
29 pages
Annotation
Children's reports for activities they were motivated to conceal were examined to identify socioemotional influences on their eyewitness accuracy.
Abstract
Children's reports of activities they were motivated to conceal were examined to identify socioemotional influences on their eyewitness accuracy. Forty-eight 3- to 6-year- old children were divided, with their mothers, into two equal groups and given toys to play with, all of the sessions were videotaped. A goal of the study was to determine if there were developmental differences in children's ability to conceal information under pressure from family members and whether their initial hesitations and denials were more accurate than their later reports. One group was told not to play with certain toys, the other given no restrictions. When left alone, both groups were told by their mothers to go ahead and play with all the toys, but those in the restricted group were told by their mothers to go ahead and play with all the toys but to keep it a secret so their mother would not get in trouble, and promised a reward of a new toy afterwards. Later the children were interviewed with highly suggestive (leading) questions and less suggestive (specific) questions. Qualitative and quantitative analyses were done of the children's responses. It was found that younger children of both groups were not significantly affected by the need to keep a secret, whereas older children did withhold more information if they had been told to keep their play activities a secret. There were no significant effects attributed to whether an interview question was leading or specific. Gender differences did exist in that girls were more concealing than boys in their narrative answers but not in their response to specific questions. It is suggested that future research be done to identify more individual and situational factors that influence children's disclosures of secrets and, also, adult ability to identify when children are keeping concealing information. It was concluded that threats from loved, trusted adults would be powerful barriers to children's disclosure in forensic contexts and should be considered in investigations of both legal cases and future scholarly studies of children's eyewitnesses reports. Tables, appendix, and references