Memory, suggestibility, stress arousal, and trauma-related psychopathology were examined in 328 3- to 16-year-olds involved in forensic investigations of abuse and neglect. Children's memory and suggestibility were assessed for a medical examination and venipuncture. Being older and scoring higher in cognitive functioning were related to fewer inaccuracies. In addition, cortisol level and trauma symptoms in children who reported more dissociative tendencies were associated with increased memory error, whereas cortisol level and trauma symptoms were not associated with increased error for children who reported fewer dissociative tendencies. Sexual and/or physical abuse predicted greater accuracy. The study contributes important new information to scientific understanding of maltreatment, psychopathology, and eyewitness memory in children.

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This study examined how individual differences in dissociation, absorption and a history of abuse are related to memory and suggestibility for the details of a personally experienced, known event. One hundred and thirty college students took part in a staged event and completed the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES), the Tellegen Absorption Scale (TAS), and questions about each participant's history of childhood abuse. One week after the staged event and initial testing, the students were questioned about the event. Dissociation and absorption were significantly related to errors on misleading questions but unrelated to errors on specific (non‐misleading) questions. Reports of a history of child abuse were also related to dissociation and absorption but were generally unrelated to event memory or resistance to misleading information. Copyright © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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