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Can rapport building strategies, age, and question type influence preschoolers’ disclosures of adult wrongdoing?
Author(s) -
Magnusson Mikaela,
Ernberg Emelie,
Landström Sara,
Joleby Malin,
Akehurst Lucy
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.743
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1467-9450
pISSN - 0036-5564
DOI - 10.1111/sjop.12626
Subject(s) - psychology , wrongdoing , recall , developmental psychology , free recall , social psychology , cognitive psychology , political science , law
In the present experiment, we examined preschoolers’ disclosures of a secret as a function of rapport building strategies used in Scandinavian field settings (verbal rapport building vs. prop rapport building), age in months (33–75 months) and question type (open‐ended free recall invitation vs. suggestive questions). Fifty‐three preschoolers ( M = 60.5 months old , SD = 11.4) witnessed a researcher break a toy and were asked to keep the toy breakage a secret. The children were thereafter interviewed about the incident. Overall, 18.9% of the children disclosed the secret after an open‐ended free recall invitation . The disclosure rate rose to 83% after the final phase of the interviews when questions containing suggestive details were asked of the children. Notably, we did not observe any significant effects as a function of manipulating rapport building strategy. A linear regression model showed that child age (in months) significantly predicted the amount of reported details, with younger preschoolers reporting fewer details compared to older preschoolers. Age also predicted the amount of correct details, but not the amount of incorrect details. No age differences were found with regard to children’s disclosure tendencies or proportion of central details about the secret. Methodological limitations and practical implications will be addressed.