The relationships among interviewer utterance type, CBCA scores and the richness of children's responses

Abstract

Objectives. The goal of the study was to determine whether the criterion‐based content analysis (CBCA) indicators of credibility were more likely to be elicited by open‐ended interview prompts than by more directive prompts.Methods. Coders independently applied a revised CBCA coding scheme while others rated interviewer utterance types and the length and richness of children's responses in transcripts of 20 forensic interviews of alleged victims of child sexual abuse.Results. There were high correlations between the number of CBCA criteria identified and both the length and richness of the children's utterances. Open‐ended invitations were especially useful in eliciting responses that contained CBCA criteria, as expected.Conclusions. Open‐ended invitations thus appear to elicit both more numerous details and details that are believed to suggest credibility. Implications for the application of CBCA codes to credibility assessment are discussed.