Children's unwillingness to report abuse places them at risk for re-victimization, and interviewers who do not respond sensitively to that unwillingness may increase the likelihood that victims will not disclose abuse. Interviewer support and children's reluctance were examined on a turn-by-turn basis using sequential analyses in 199 forensic interviews of 3- to 13-year-olds who alleged maltreatment. Half of the children were interviewed using the Revised Protocol that emphasized rapport-building (RP), the others using the Standard National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Protocol (SP). When using the RP, interviewers provided proportionally more support than when using the SP, but even when using the RP they did not specifically provide support when children expressed reluctance. The RP promoted immediate cooperation when reluctant utterances were met with support, however, suggesting that supportive statements were valuable. The findings enhance our understanding of children's willingness to participate in investigative interviews and the means through which interviewers can foster the comfort and well-being of young witnesses.

HighlightsThe Baby Care Questionnaire (BCQ) measures parents’ support of parenting principles.The BCQ measures two factors (principles) – structure and attunement.The BCQ showed reliability – internal consistency and test–retest reliability.Structure and attunement were related to parenting practices, such as breastfeeding.Structure and attunement were related to perceived control over caregiving failures.

This research was supported, under the auspices of the Open Research Area (Application BO 3973/1-1; Principal Investigator, Michael E Lamb), by grants from the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC; Grant ES/K006150/1; Principal Investigator, Michael E. Lamb), The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO; Grant NWO 464-11-001, Principal Investigator, Henny W.M. Bos) and the French Agence Nationale de Recherche (ANR; Grant ANR-12-ORAR-00005-01, Principal Investigator, Olivier Vecho) whose support is gratefully acknowledged. There were no competing interests.

Highlights Investigated attention in full-term and preterm 5-month-olds and their mothers. Compared attention to persons and objects. Evaluated role of maturity in orienting and responding to attention. Infant attention to persons versus objects was related to maturity. Infant and maternal responsiveness were related to maturity.

HighlightsConsistency in group level (continuity) and individual level (stability) was examined longitudinally for caregiving principles (structure and attunement) and cognitions (categorical thinking, perspectivist thinking, complexity of thought) in mothers of preterm and term infants from birth to 5 months old.Attunement was continuous and stable in mothers of preterm and term infants.Structure was continuous in both groups but stable only in mothers of term infants.Complexity of thought was continuous in both groups, perspectivist thinking increased in both groups but only for first-time mothers, and categorical thinking increased only in mothers of preterm infants.Categorical thinking, perspectivist thinking, and complexity of thought were stable in mothers of both preterm and term infants.