Children's memories of a physical examination involving genital touch: Implications for reports of child sexual abuse.

Abstract

Evaluation of child sexual abuse often necessitates interviewing children about genital touch, yet little scientific research exists on how best to obtain children's reports of genital contact. To examine this issue, 72 five- and seven-year-old girls experienced a standardized medical checkup. For half of the children, the checkup included a vaginal and anal examination (genital condition); for the other half, the checkup included a scoliosis examination instead (nongenital condition). The children's memories were later solicited through free recall, anatomically detailed doll demonstration, and direct and misleading questions. The majority of children in the genital condition revealed vaginal and anal contact only when asked directly about it. Children in the nongenital condition never falsely reported genital touch in free recall or doll demonstration; when asked directly, the false report rate was low. Significant age differences in free recall and doll demonstration, found only in the nongenital condition, implicated socioemotional factors as suppressing the reports of older children who experienced genital contact.

Hypnosis Reduces Distress and Duration of an Invasive Medical Procedure for Children

“…Past research has demonstrated that both question types are necessary because children usually provide more information in response to specific questions but tend to be more accurate in response to open-ended questions (results of these responses will be reported elsewhere; see also 3,32,33 ). In addition, each child was asked to indicate how much he or she cried, how fearful he or she was, and how much pain he or she experienced during the previous procedure.…”

“…Research indicates that children remember their experiences of medical procedures quite accurately. [1][2][3] However, distress at the time of the procedure can exaggerate negative memories of the procedure, which in turn can increase distress at subsequent procedures. 1 Our goal in this randomized trial was to evaluate whether hypnotic relaxation, when compared with routine care, could decrease children's distress and the effects of distress on the ease and duration of performing an invasive medical procedure, a voiding cystourethrogram (VCUG).…”

Annotation: Children as Witnesses—Legal and Psychological Perspectives

“…She and her colleagues have conducted a series of experiments that have demonstrated clearly that children as young as four years of age can be remarkably resistant to suggestive questions when they concern potendally abusive actions (Rudy & Goodman, 1991). In one set of experiments, they assessed children's suggesdbility in situations that are both personally significant and stressful, by interviewing children after they have received roudne medical procedures, such as inoculadon (Goodman, Bottoms, Schwartz-Kennedy & Rudy, 1991a), giving a blood sample (Goodman, Hirshman, Hepps & Rudy, 1991b) or a full medical examinadon (Saywitz et al, 1991). When these children (3-8 years old) were later asked questions about this event, several suggestive questions of the type that would be asked of a suspected victim were included: Did he kiss you?…”

Confirmation bias in witness interviewing: Can interviewers ignore their preconceptions?

“…Arguably, there are beneficial and suboptimal ways to prepare for an interview, for example, by avoiding particular pieces of case information, but reviewing other critically helpful details. However, blind interviewing may be challenging with certain (vulnerable) witness groups, such as witnesses who are unable to provide a detailed account or are reluctant to provide information in response to general prompting (Saywitz et al, 1991). The appropriateness of a blind interviewing approach may therefore depend on (a) the purpose of the interview and (b) the characteristics of the interviewee.…”

“…This is thought to enhance comprehension of the child's responses, foster more effective rapport building, and aid in introducing the topic of abuse (Poole & Lamb, 1998). It has also been argued that preinterview information may be necessary given sexually abused children's reluctance to disclose spontaneously in an interview situation (Saywitz, Goodman, Nicholas, & Moan, 1991). As such, reluctant children may benefit from direct questioning fostered by knowledge of the circumstances surrounding the allegation or a previous disclosure from the child.…”