Is interviewer support associated with the reduced reluctance and enhanced informativeness of alleged child abuse victims?

Abstract

Child maltreatment victims are often reluctant to report abuse when formally interviewed. Evidence-based guidelines like the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Standard Investigative Interview Protocol do not adequately address such reluctance because they are focused on cognitive rather than socio-emotional strategies. The present study was designed to determine whether the Revised NICHD Protocol, which emphasizes supportive interviewing more than the Standard Protocol does, might predict increases in the overall informativeness and reductions in the reluctance of alleged victims. A total of 254 interviews, 166 using the Revised Protocol and 88 using the Standard Protocol, were conducted with 4.06-to 13.98-year-old children (M = 9.20, SD = 2.49) who disclosed multiple incidents of physical abuse by their parents and were thus expected to be more reluctant than victims of extrafamilial abuse. We coded indices of interviewer support and question types, children's reluctance, and informativeness in each utterance during the substantive phases of the interviews. The Revised Protocol was associated with better interviewer support and questioning as well as reduced reluctance and increased informativeness on the part of the children. These findings document the value of training interviewers to attend to the socio-emotional needs of suspected abuse victims during investigative interviews.

Identifying Liars Through Automatic Decoding of Children's Facial Expressions

“…For example, in legal settings, forensic interviewers are often interested in identifying victims of maltreatment who may be concealing such experiences. FACS technology may be a means to identify warning signs during an investigation that a child is at risk of concealing a wrongdoing, thereby justifying continued supervision and support, and helping investigators to determine if a subsequent disclosure was due to initial reluctance from the child (Blasbalg, Hershkowitz, Lamb, Karni-Visel, & Ahern, 2019;Saywitz, Wells, Larson, & Hobbs, 2019). However, additional research is needed to refine the use of FACS technology before it can be implemented in real-world settings.…”

Effects of delay on episodic memory retrieval by children with autism spectrum disorder

“…The NICHD Protocol is a structured, nonsuggestive, and child‐directed interview protocol that has been systematically evaluated in the field and is currently used by forensic interviewers in several countries worldwide. The recently developed Revised NICHD Protocol helps interviewers deal more effectively with reluctant children by advising them on how to build better rapport and provide children with more support throughout the interview (Blasbalg, Hershkowitz, & Karniel‐Visel, ; Blasbalg, Hershkowitz, Lamb, Karniel‐Visel, & Ahern, ; Hershkowitz et al, ; Hershkowitz, Lamb, & Katz, ).…”

The dynamics of two-session interviews with suspected victims of abuse who are reluctant to make allegations

“…Several studies have illustrated that, following intensive training (Hershkowitz et al, 2017) in use of the RP rather than the SP, interviewers are more supportive and that this is in turn associated with reduced reluctance during the presubstantive (Hershkowitz, Lamb, Katz, & Malloy, 2015) and substantive (Blasbalg, Hershkowitz, & Karni-Visel, 2018; Blasbalg, Hershkowitz, Lamb, Karni-Visel, & Ahern, 2019) phases of individual forensic interviews, especially when the support is directly responsive to signs of reluctance (Ahern, Hershkowitz, Lamb, Blasbalg, & Winstanley, 2014; Blasbalg et al, 2018). In addition, when addressed supportively, children are also more responsive and emotionally expressive (Karni-Visel, Hershkowitz, Lamb, & Blasbalg, 2019).…”

“…In addition, when addressed supportively, children are also more responsive and emotionally expressive (Karni-Visel, Hershkowitz, Lamb, & Blasbalg, 2019). These reactions are associated with the provision of more information about the suspected abuse (Blasbalg, Hershkowitz, Lamb, et al, 2019; Karni-Visel et al, 2019) in the context of more coherent narratives (Blasbalg, Hershkowitz, Karni-Visel, & Lamb, 2019). Such findings imply that decreased reluctance, increased responsiveness, and increased emotional expressiveness reflect increased cooperation, and therefore they were treated as indices of cooperation in the current study.…”