This research was designed to examine two broad issues in relation to the investigative interviewing of children (aged 9 to 13 years) with mild and moderate intellectual disabilities. First, how do children with intellectual disabilities perform (relative to children matched for chronological and mental age) when recalling an event in response to various questions? Second, what question types and interview strategies do police officers and caregivers use to elicit accurate and detailed accounts about an event from children with intellectual disabilities? The rationale for exploring each of these issues was to determine possible ways of improving the elicitation of evidence from children with intellectual disabilities. While children with intellectual disabilities constitute a high proportion of all child victims of abuse (Conway, 1994; Goldman, 1994; Morse, et ah, 1970), they rarely provide formal reports of abuse and of those incidents that are reported, few cases progress to court (Henry & Gudjonsson, 1999). Study 1 used a standard interview protocol containing a variety of questions and an interview structure commonly used in investigative interviews. Specifically, the memory and suggestibility of eighty children with either a mild and moderate intellectual disability (M age = 10.85 years) was examined when recalling an innocuous event that was staged at their school. The children's performance was compared with that of two control groups; a group of mainstream children matched for mental age and a group of mainstream children matched for chronological age. Overall, this study showed that children with both mild and moderate intellectual disabilities can provide accurate and highly specific event-related information hi response to questions recommended in best-practice guidelines. However, their recall was less complete and less clear in response to free-narrative prompts and less accurate in response to specific questions when compared to both mainstream age-matched groups. Study 2 provided an in-depth analysis of the types of questions and strategies used by twenty-eight police officers and caregivers when interviewing children with either mild or moderate intellectual disabilities (M age = 11.13 years) about a repeated event that was staged at their school. The results revealed that while the approach used by the police officers was generally consistent with best-practice recommendations (i.e., their interviews contained few leading, coercive or negative strategies), there were many ways in which their approach could be improved. This study also showed that the caregivers used a high proportion of direct and negative strategies to elicit information from their children. Even when caregivers used open-ended questions, their children provided less event-related information than they did to police interviewers. The results of both studies were discussed in relation to current 'best-practice' guidelines for interviewing children and recommendations were offered for improving the quality of field interviews with children who have intellectual disabilities.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Delaware, 2006. / Principal faculty advisor: Mary Dozier, Dept. of Psychology. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 169-185). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

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In this study, results from Epstein's (1983) study were replicated and parental acceptance was found to be significantly correlated with measures of global self-esteem and lovability. This study extends his work to examine the unique effect of parental nonconcordance (i.e., one parent experienced as accepting and the other parent experienced as rejecting). Undergraduate students (N = 259) completed the Mother-Father-Peer Scale and the Multidimensional Self-Esteem Inventory. Results of the hierarchical multiple regression analysis supported the hypotheses that mother acceptance is a better predictor of global self-esteem and lovability than father acceptance in cases of parental nonconcordance. The results are discussed in lights of Bowlby's (1969/1982. 1973, & 1980) attachment theory, the construct of internal working models of attachment and the hierarchical nature of these models. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

Although growing evidence suggests that relational victimization is harmful to children as it occurs and shortly after, less is known about the potential long-term effects. The present study develops and validates a retrospective measure of childhood relational victimization experiences. A model is tested of the relations between childhood relational victimization experiences and early parental attachment quality on early adult psychological and social adjustment factors such as peer attachment quality, loneliness, and social anxiety, as mediated by rejection sensitivity. It has been proposed that early parental attachment quality, mediated by rejection sensitivity, may largely impact adult functioning (Downey, Khouri, & Feldman, 1997), but childhood relational victimization may also affect this psychosocial functioning. The Retrospective Relational Victimization Questionnaire (RRVQ) was developed and validated for this study to measure past relational victimization experiences. The primary study used structural equation modeling to assess a primary model of how both childhood parental attachment quality and relational victimization contribute to the experience of rejection sensitivity and in turn affects early adult functioning. A comparison is made with an alternative model which included only early parental attachment as a predictor of early adult adjustment. The RRVQ was found to be a reliable and valid measure of college students’ retrospectively recalled childhood relational victimization experiences. Neither the primary nor the alternative model was found to be well-fitting; however, additional exploratory results suggest that both early parental attachment and relational victimization experiences are significantly associated with current rejection sensitivity, while early relational victimization is somewhat more associated with current adult peer attachment, loneliness, and social anxiety than is early parental attachment. Educational, clinical, and research implications are discussed. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

Thesis (MPsychology(Clinical))--University of South Australia, 2001.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Feb. 28, 2008). Directed by Susan D. Calkins; submitted to the Dept. of Psychology. Includes bibliographical references (p. 36-42).