@article{accbbd726ca24c5fa433cd5c5e7a3611,
title = "Young Children{\textquoteright}s Ability to Describe Intermediate Clothing Placement",
abstract = "Children{\textquoteright}s ability to adequately describe clothing placement is essential to evaluating their allegations of sexual abuse. Intermediate clothing placement (partially removed clothing) may be difficult for young children to describe, requiring more detailed explanations to indicate the location of clothing (e.g., the clothes were pulled down to the knees). The current study investigated 172 3- to 6-year-olds{\textquoteright} descriptions of clothing placement when responding to commonly used questions (yes/no, forced-choice, open-choice, where), as well as children{\textquoteright}s on-off response tendencies when describing intermediate placement (i.e., labeling the clothing as fully on or off). Results revealed that where questions were superior in eliciting intermediate descriptions, even for the youngest children. Children sometimes exhibited tendencies to describe intermediate placements as “on” or “off,” which varied by question-type and clothing placement. The implications of the findings for interviewing young children about sexual abuse are discussed.",
keywords = "child sexual abuse, clothing placement, intermediate descriptions, question type, response biases",
author = "Breanne Wylie and Stolzenberg, {Stacia N.} and Kelly McWilliams and Evans, {Angela D.} and Lyon, {Thomas D.}",
note = "Funding Information: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Grant HD087695 grant to Dr. Thomas D. Lyon and the Council for Research in the Social Sciences funding from Brock University to Dr. Angela D. Evans. Thank you to the Jack and Nora Walker Centre for Lifespan Research and to all the families who participated in the study. Portions of this data were presented at the 2019 annual meeting of the American Psychology-Law Society. A special thank you to Louise de Wit for sewing all the tiny clothing for the figures. Funding Information: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Grant HD087695 grant to Dr. Thomas D. Lyon and the Council for Research in the Social Sciences funding from Brock University to Dr. Angela D. Evans. Thank you to the Jack and Nora Walker Centre for Lifespan Research and to all the families who participated in the study. Portions of this data were presented at the 2019 annual meeting of the American Psychology-Law Society. A special thank you to Louise de Wit for sewing all the tiny clothing for the figures. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2020.",
year = "2021",
month = feb,
doi = "10.1177/1077559520930825",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "26",
pages = "87--94",
journal = "Child Maltreatment",
issn = "1077-5595",
publisher = "SAGE Publications Inc.",
number = "1",
}