The quality of childrenʹs allegations of abuse in investigative interviews containing practice narratives

To enhance the accuracy and completeness of childrenʹs testimony, recommendations have included implementing a practice narrative, during which children are prepared for their role as informative witnesses before discussing the allegations. In the present study, we aimed to systematically examine interviewer behaviour and the informativeness of childrenʹs testimony in a field setting. As predicted, interviewers posed fewer prompts, proportionally more open-ended prompts, and children provided proportionally more details in response to open-ended prompts in the substantive phase when preceded by a practice narrative than when no practice narrative was conducted. The relationship was enhanced when the practice narratives were conducted as recommended vs those that were conducted in a less open-ended manner. Together with experimental studies showing clear benefits of practice narratives on childrenʹs reports, these results underscore the value of a simple practice narrative as a means of enhancing the reliability of childrenʹs testimony.