The accuracy of children's memory reports is of paramount importance in child sexual abuse investigative interviews. If a child is actually maltreated, the child's ability to provide accurate information can influence whether that child is adequately protected from an alleged perpetrator. If maltreatment did not occur, it is important that highly stressful events that often accompany maltreatment do not follow (e.g., placement in foster care). Previous research demonstrates that preschool children falsely assent to leading questions relevant to a child sexual abuse investigation at high rates (Krackow & Lynn, 2003; Krackow & Lynn, 2005). Moreover, age differences in suggestibility exist such that preschool children are more suggestible than are older children (Ceci, & Bruck, 1995). Therefore interventions to reduce suggestibility in preschoolers are needed. In school settings children as young as 3 years of age often participate in child sexual safety skills programs (Repucci & Haugaard, 1989). It is possible that these programs might improve children's ability to accurately respond to questions about bodily touch, although to date their efficacy has not been examined in this fashion. The proposed project will compare the accuracy of preschool children's responses to leading questions contained in a memory interview about a standardized laboratory interaction after they participate in either a child sexual safety skills program, or Event Report Training, an intervention specifically designed to reduce suggestibility, or a control program that teaches children about child safety but does not teach child sexual abuse concepts. It is hypothesized that both children in the child sexual safety skills program and children in the Event Report Training condition will provide more accurate responses (i.e., show reduced suggestibility) compared to children in the control condition. The veracity of a child's report of alleged maltreatment is of paramount importance because there is often no physical evidence in cases of child sexual abuse, no constellation of psychological symptoms specific to child sexual abuse (Kendall-Tackett, Williams, & Finkelhor, 1993), and the child is frequently the only witness. Therefore, methods, such as those to be investigated by the research proposed herein, to insure that children provide the most accurate information in investigative interviews are key in protecting children who actually have experienced maltreatment, as well as protecting children who have not been maltreated from the belief that they have been victimized. ? ? ? ?
