Age differences in Criteria-Based Content Analysis scores in typical child sexual abuse interviews

Abstract

Criteria-Based Content Analysis (CBCA) by Steller and Koehnken [ Psychological methods in criminal investigation and evidence (1989) 217. New York: Springer.] is used to help determine the veracity of allegations of child sexual abuse by reference to criteria theorized to be present more often in true statements. Studies generally show that older children meet more criteria, indicating potential problems in applying CBCA equally well across the age range. The present study examined 104 actual child sexual abuse interviews with children age 2–14 years ( M=6.5). Two trained raters, blind to the children's ages, evaluated each interview for the original 19 CBCA criteria. Data were coded using various methods, some of which gave children credit for reporting criteria spontaneously or when prompted by the interviewer. For all coding methods, age was significantly correlated with 12 or more criteria, and with total CBCA scores. The youngest children never reported seven criteria, even when interviewer prompting was taken into account. Therefore, many of the criteria may not be useful in typical interviews with children across a wide age range, because they either are rarely present or they are highly correlated with age.