Abstract
Perceptions of children’s credibility were studied in two experiments wherein participants watched a videotape of a 4- to 5- or a 6- to 7-year old child report details of a play session that had been experienced once (single-event) or was the last in a series of four similar play sessions (repeat-event). The child’s report was classified as high or low accurate. In Experiments 1 and 2, reports of repeat-event children were judged to be less believable on several measures. In Experiment 1, younger children were viewed as less credible than older children. In both experiments, neither undergraduates nor community members correctly discriminated between high- and low-accurate reports. Content analysis in Study 3 revealed the relationship between age and event frequency and children’s credibility ratings was mediated by the internal consistency of children’s reports. Recent research on children’s reports of instances of repeated events has identified several challenges facing children who report repeated abuse. These data bring to light another potential difficulty for these children.
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Notes
An anonymous reviewer correctly stated that because the participant listened to only one report, “coherence” is a more appropriate description of this report characteristic. However, given that it was labeled “consistency” in the questionnaire, we retain that term throughout the paper.
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Acknowledgments
This research was supported by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) operating grant to the first author, a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council graduate scholarship to the second author, and SSHRC graduate scholarships to the third and fourth authors. The authors thank Catharine Martin, Pam Johnson, Scott Currie, Jef Grainger, Alexa Dunbar, Christine McBeth, Melissa Northcott, and Michelle Houle for their assistance with data collection.
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Connolly, D.A., Price, H.L., Lavoie, J.A.A. et al. Perceptions and Predictors of Children's Credibility of a Unique Event and an Instance of a Repeated Event. Law Hum Behav 32, 92–112 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10979-006-9083-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10979-006-9083-3