Citation

Chae Y, Goodman GS, Larson RP, Augusti EM, Alley D, VanMeenen KM, Culver M, Coulter KP. J. Exp. Child Psychol. 2014; 123C: 90-111.

Affiliation

Department of Pediatrics, University of California, Davis Medical Center, Sacramento, CA 95816, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jecp.2014.01.005

PMID

24705095

Abstract

Our goal was to identify individual difference predictors of children's memory and suggestibility for distressing personally experienced events. Specifically, we examined children's and parents' attachment orientations and children's observable levels of distress, as well as other individual difference factors, as predictors of children's memory and suggestibility. Children (N=91) aged 3 to 6years were interviewed about inoculations received at medical clinics. For children whose parents scored as more avoidant, higher distress levels during the inoculations predicted less accuracy, whereas for children whose parents scored as less avoidant, higher distress levels predicted greater accuracy. Children with more rather than less positive representations of parents and older rather than younger children answered memory questions more accurately. Two children provided false reports of child sexual abuse. Implications for theory, research, and practice are discussed.

Language: en