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The impact of rapport practice on child witness recall and anxiety

The impact of rapport practice on child witness recall and anxiety. Kimberly Collins & Martin Doherty Department of Psychology, University of Stirling, UK. 1. 1. What we know already.

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The impact of rapport practice on child witness recall and anxiety

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  1. The impact of rapport practice on child witness recall and anxiety Kimberly Collins & Martin Doherty Department of Psychology, University of Stirling, UK 1 1

  2. What we know already... Cognitive and social factors influence children’s ability to recall information and their motivation to communicate(e.g. See Lamb & Brown, 2006 for an overview). Assessment and management of these factors begins in the rapport building phase (Collins, Doherty-Sneddon & Doherty, in prep; Roberts, Lamb & Sternberg, 2004). 2 2

  3. What is the purpose of the rapport building phase? • Explain ground rules and interview’s purpose • Inform interviewer of child’s social, cognitive and emotional capabilities • Establish trust and relax the child 3

  4. Rapport building research Practitioners say it is essential for communication with most children except some older child witnesses or willing disclosers (Collins, Doherty-Sneddon & Doherty, in prep) Recent lab research shows attempts at rapport building produce more detailed and accurate information(Collins, Doherty-Sneddon & Doherty, under review) 4 4

  5. Rapport research... Reticent or uncommunicative children at beginning of interview more communicative after rapport building(e.g. Wood, McClure & Birch, 1996) Rapport results in longer responsesfrom child witnesses (Ruddock, 2006) 5 5

  6. Current rapport protocol • Scottish exec & ABE guidelines encourage use of open ended questions on neutral topics • NICHD: rapport phase then practice interview • More accurate & detailedinformation using these styles (e.g. Roberts, Lamb & Sternberg, 2004) • Nevertheless not being used by practitioners!!! (La Rooy et al, 2010; Collins et al, in prep) 6 6

  7. Play rapport • Constructive play task e.g. building a car or castle • 10 mins to complete. No make believe or fantasy • Child friendly, developmentally appropriate, used successfully to build rapport in psychotherapy 7 7

  8. Findings so far for play rapport communication and rapport(Collins et al, under review) infoand accurate info in free narrative and in response to open ended resistanceto misleading questions (Collins et al, in prep) 8 8

  9. Why???? Supportive interviewers improve recall and reduce anxiety in comparison to non-supportive (Almerigogna et al, 2007) Rapport building makes children more comfortableby increasing understanding and reassurance (Collins et al, in prep) Play reduces children’s anxietyin novel situations (Barnett & Storm, 1981) 9 9

  10. Research questions • What is the impact of the different rapport protocols on children’s anxiety levels? • Are the benefits of play rapport due to a reduction in children’s anxiety levels? • Are these differences related to recall and rapport levels? 10 10

  11. Method • Data collected from 100 childrenacross 2 age groups • 3 (Rapport Type: play, open and control) x 2 (Age: 5-7 and 8-10) x 2 (Sex) between participants design 1. Pirate activities Event to be recalled. Carried out by 4 research assistants. Lasted 15 mins. One week later 2. Rapport phase No rapport. Child coloured in Interviewer and child completed a play task together open interview 3.Interview Interviewed about pirate activities 11 11

  12. Anxiety measures Biopack: attach wires to children’s wrists and record heart rate during baseline and interview STAI-C: self reportof children’s anxiety levels during baseline & interview 12 12

  13. Rapport protocol produced no difference in heart rate. • No difference in heart rate for the two age groups • Similar effects when measuring with the STAI-C 13 13

  14. Relationship between recall, anxiety & rapport protocol Heart rate & STAI-C was not related to total recall or information accuracy overall No differences in rapport protocol for heart rate or STAI-C therefore no point in exploring the findings with respect to recall 14 14

  15. Conclusions Based on our findings there were no differences in anxiety across rapport protocols. Positive effects on recall found for the play protocoltherefore not due to a reduction in anxietyas a result of play. Lack of difference even between the control and the 2 rapport conditions. 15 15

  16. Conclusions Possible that the children not that anxious about the situation anywaybecause of neutral nature of information, interviewer, school setting etc. Would be better tested in a real life interview setting where children more likely to be anxious. Positive effects of play not due to reduced anxiety. Increased confidenceinstead? Reduction in power asymmetry? 16 16

  17. Practical implications Play rapport found to have information benefits in terms of detail, accuracy & overall quality of interviewing style Early days!!! Research needs to be replicated in lab and field settings Differences in recall as a result of rapport protocol may not be due to rapport’s influence on anxiety levels 17

  18. Thank you for listening. Any questions or comments? kimberly.collins@stir.ac.uk 18 18

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