Questioning procedures used with children: does distress influence children's event recall?

Warren, Kelly L. (Kelly Lynn) (2004) Questioning procedures used with children: does distress influence children's event recall? Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

Children between 2 and 9 years who suffered trauma injuries were recruited from the emergency room. Children and their parents were interviewed about their injury and the subsequent hospital treatment within two weeks. Parents were asked to rate their child's distress at the time of the injury on a 5-point scale. Responses provided by children were divided into those provided in free recall, to open-ended questions, direct prompts, and yes/no questions. Children's responses for each type of question were compared across the different distress levels. Age effects revealed that older children provided more information in response to free recall, open-ended questions, and direct prompts while younger children provided more information in response to yes/no questions. Although distress did not influence the completeness of children's recall, it did influence the number of adjectives and the number of coherence markers children provided, particularly in response to direct prompts.

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