As child abuse reports rise, so do the numbers of children entering the legal system. Using psychological theories and methods to understand children's abilities and identify optimal methods for interviewing children increases the chances that accurate information will be obtained from child witnesses. This, in turn, assures justice by aiding efforts to prosecute actual abusers and efforts to reveal the innocence of the unjustly accused. Research on children's eyewitness memory reveals that children are more resistant to misleading suggestions if they are interviewed in a socially supportive rather than an intimidating manner. However, the effect of social support across multiple interviews and after a significant delay is not known, and the psychological mechanism responsible for its effects is not understood. The proposed study is designed to (a) confirm positive effects of support on children's resistance to misleading questions about a stressful event, (b) determine the effects of social support across multiple interviews after a significant delay, (c) identify the mechanism underlying the effects of social support, and (d) explore the role of individual differences (e.g., social support reserves, self esteem) in moderating the effects of support. Children will experience a routine inoculation at a medical clinic, and a month later, they will be interviewed three times about the event in either a socially supportive or nonsupportive manner. It is predicted that social support will increase children's resistance to misleading questions by increasing their Perceived Resistance Efficacy, and that the increase in resistance will hold across the three interviews. Children low in social support reserves and self-esteem will be most affected by the social support manipulation. The proposed study will yield empirically sound answers to questions of critical theoretical and applied significance, and also provide preliminary data that will lay the groundwork for future studies in the PI's program of research.
