This program of research involves two research projects. The goal of the major project is to develop and assess techniques for enhancing the informativeness of child witnesses and for evaluating the credibility of their accounts. Several studies have confirmed that open-ended questions elicit longer and more detailed responses than more focused questions, regardless of the number of incidents experienced. Other studies have shown that interviewers can increase the length and richness of children's accounts by following protocols designed to probe recall memory and reduce the reliance on focused questions which are more likely to elicit erroneous information. Special considerations that might affect interviews of very young children, as well as children who are reluctant to disclose, are currently of special interest. The goal of the other project is to explore the effects of domestic violence on children who were either victims of physical abuse, witnesses of spousal abuse, both victims and witnesses, or neither victims nor witnesses. These children were first assessed in 1988/9 when they were between 8 and 12 years of age. The children, their parents, and their teachers were reinterviewed in 1995 and 1996. To date, reports have focused on demonstrating and evaluating the implications of major discrepancies between reports by different informants concerning both family violence and children's adjustment.
