Increasing maltreated and nonmaltreated children’s recall disclosures of a minor transgression: The effects of back-channel utterances, a promise to tell the truth, and a post-recall putative confession

Abstract

Background: Children are often hesitant to disclose transgressions, particularly when they feel implicated, and frequently remain reluctant until confronted with direct questions. Given the risks associated with direct questions, an important issue is how interviewers can encourage honesty through recall questions. Objective: The present study examined the use of three truth induction strategies for increasing the accuracy and productivity of children's reports about a transgression. Participants: A total of 285 4-to-9-year-old maltreated and nonmaltreated children. Methods: Each child took part in a play session with a stranger during which the child appeared to break some toys. A research assistant interviewed the child with narrative practice rapport building and recall questions. The study included manipulations of back-channel utterances (brief expressions used to communicate attention and interest), whether (and when) the child was asked to promise to tell the truth, and the use of a post-recall putative confession. Results: Back-channel utterances failed to increase disclosure (OR = .79 [95% CI: .48, 1.31]) but increased the productivity of children's reports about broken (p = .04, ?p = 0.02) and unbroken toys (p = .004, ?p = 0.03). A promise to tell the truth significantly increased children's disclosures, but only among nonmaltreated children (OR = 3.65 [95% CI: 1.23, 10.90]). The post-recall putative confession elicited new disclosures from about half of children who had failed to disclose. Conclusions: The findings highlight the difficulties of eliciting honest responses from children about suspected transgressions and the need for flexible questioning strategies.

Identifying Liars Through Automatic Decoding of Children's Facial Expressions

“…A total of 158 children aged 4-to 9 years old who were recruited during prior studies (McWilliams, Stozenberg, Williams, & Lyon, 2019;Stolzenberg et al, 2017) were included in this study. An additional 30 participants were excluded due to issues related to coding of facial expressions (discussed below).…”

“…Children participated in a video-recorded interview as part of a prior research study (McWilliams et al, 2019;Stolzenberg, et al, 2017). In the McWilliams et al 2019study, children played with several toys in a research laboratory with an adult confederate.…”

Forensic Interviewers’ Difficulty With Invitations: Faux Invitations and Negative Recasting

“…At the same time that interviewers can be encouraged to maximize their use of invitations, training can acknowledge that wh- questions are effective in eliciting certain types of information that children tend not to provide when answering invitations. For example, children often omit relevant details when asked free recall questions, such as their subjective reaction to abuse (Lyon et al, 2012; McWilliams et al, in press; Newman & Roberts, 2014), details regarding abuse disclosure (Malloy et al, 2013), and prior conversations (Stolzenberg et al, 2018). Nonstatic questions such as “how did people find out about [the abuse],” “how did you feel [during/after abuse],” and “what did [suspect] say about [the abuse]” may be utilized when invitations fail to elicit these types of information.…”

Adults' difficulties in identifying concealment among children interviewed with the putative confession instructions

“…The present research focuses on one such strategy, the putative confession instructions (PC), in which the interviewer tells the child that the suspect disclosed “everything that happened and wants [the child] to tell the truth.” Several investigations have found that the PC increases true disclosures of a transgression without increasing false disclosures (Evans & Lyon, 2019; Lyon et al, 2014; McWilliams, Stolzenberg, Williams, & Lyon, 2019; Quas, Stolzenberg, & Lyon, 2018; Rush, Stolzenberg, Quas, & Lyon, 2017; Stolzenberg, McWilliams, & Lyon, 2017). Compared to a no‐instruction control, children responding to the PC are more than twice as likely to report a true transgression (Lyon et al, 2014; Quas et al, 2018) and more than twice as likely not to make a false disclosure (Rush et al, 2017).…”

“…The PC's benefits have emerged even when other approaches have failed to increase disclosure, such as enhanced rapport building (Lyon et al, 2014), asking children to promise to tell the truth (McWilliams et al, 2019; Quas et al, 2018), and attempting to engage children in a secret‐sharing activity (Ahern, Stolzenberg, McWilliams, & Lyon, 2016). Finally, the PC is effective at increasing disclosures without inducing errors, including when children have participated in conversations suggesting false details before the interview either by the child's parent (Rush et al, 2017) or another adult (Cleveland, Quas, & Lyon, 2018; Evans & Lyon, 2019).…”