Effects of Investigative Utterance Types on Israeli Children's Responses

Michael E. Lamb; Irit Hershkowitz; Kathleen J. Sternberg; Phillip W. Esplin; Meir Hovav; Talma Manor; Liora Yudilevitch

doi:10.1177/016502549601900310

Effects of Investigative Utterance Types on Israeli Children's Responses

Michael E. Lamb, Irit Hershkowitz, Kathleen J. Sternberg, Phillip W. Esplin, Meir Hovav, Talma Manor, Liora Yudilevitch

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

This field study is concerned with the effect of interviewing style on children's reports of sexual abuse. Detailed psycholinguistic analyses of 22 front-line interviews of 5- to 11-year-old Israeli children by a number of interviewers focused on the length (number of words) and richness (number of new details) provided in responses to different types of utterances by the interviewers. As predicted, open-ended invitations yielded significantly longer and more detailed responses than directive, leading, or suggestive utterances, regardless of age. The younger children provided briefer and less detailed responses, however. These findings underscore the value of open-ended prompts in investigative interviews.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	627-637
Number of pages	11
Journal	International Journal of Behavioral Development
Volume	19
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/016502549601900310
State	Published - Sep 1996
Externally published	Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Social Psychology
Education
Developmental and Educational Psychology
Social Sciences (miscellaneous)
Developmental Neuroscience
Life-span and Life-course Studies

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1177/016502549601900310

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title = "Effects of Investigative Utterance Types on Israeli Children's Responses",

abstract = "This field study is concerned with the effect of interviewing style on children's reports of sexual abuse. Detailed psycholinguistic analyses of 22 front-line interviews of 5- to 11-year-old Israeli children by a number of interviewers focused on the length (number of words) and richness (number of new details) provided in responses to different types of utterances by the interviewers. As predicted, open-ended invitations yielded significantly longer and more detailed responses than directive, leading, or suggestive utterances, regardless of age. The younger children provided briefer and less detailed responses, however. These findings underscore the value of open-ended prompts in investigative interviews.",

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AU - Lamb, Michael E.

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AU - Sternberg, Kathleen J.

AU - Esplin, Phillip W.

AU - Hovav, Meir

AU - Manor, Talma

AU - Yudilevitch, Liora

PY - 1996/9

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Effects of Investigative Utterance Types on Israeli Children's Responses

Abstract

ASJC Scopus subject areas

UN SDGs

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