Maternal Reminiscing Is Associated With Preschoolers' Reports of Maltreatment During Forensic Interviews

Children's reports during forensic interviews regarding maltreatment allegations are often critical for legal processes and for guiding decisions regarding services for children and their families. Field research examining forensic interviews with children has identified a wide range in the amount of information children report to interviewers. Research examining associations between children's forensic reports and their broader ecological and developmental contexts related to autobiographical memory would critically contribute to our understanding of children's reports of trauma during forensic investigations. Guided by the sociocultural theory of autobiographical memory development and a self-determination perspective of interviewing child witnesses, associations between the number of allegation-relevant details reported by 52 preschoolers (M = 4.59 years old, SD = 1.06) during forensic interviews concerning substantiated maltreatment allegations and later maternal elaborative and autonomy supportive reminiscing from observations of mother-child interactions during a laboratory assessment were examined. Consistent with previous research regarding children's autobiographical memory, a positive association between maternal elaborative reminiscing about everyday experiences with their children and the number of unique allegation-relevant details children reported during forensic interviews was observed, but only when mothers reminisced with their children in an autonomy supportive manner. Theoretical and practical implications for interviewing child witnesses are discussed.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2021

Erschienen:

2021

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:26

Enthalten in:

Child maltreatment - 26(2021), 1 vom: 01. Feb., Seite 105-114

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Lawson, Monica [VerfasserIn]
Jaeger, Bailey [VerfasserIn]
McManus, Evelyn [VerfasserIn]
Speidel, Ruth [VerfasserIn]
Valentino, Kristin [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

Autonomy support
Child witnesses
Elaborative reminiscing
Forensic interviewing
Journal Article
Maltreatment
Maternal reminiscing
Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 25.10.2021

Date Revised 25.10.2021

published: Print-Electronic

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1177/1077559520925180

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM311153097