Familiarity and Harsh Parenting Predict Children’s Eyewitness Memory Accuracy

• In Event: Parental sensitivity and its correlates

Abstract

Imagine that two cases of suspected child abuse are reported to authorities. One child lives full-time with both parents. The other child has divorced parents and spends only a few days each week with the father. The fathers also differ in their levels of harsh parenting. What does science say about the children’s abilities to provide eyewitness memory statements?

Child maltreatment is typically committed by perpetrators, such as relatives or neighbors, who are familiar to the children (DHHS, 2022). However, most memory studies test children’s memory for briefly seen strangers, with whom there is no prior relationship or knowledge base. This study examined how familiarity and parenting relate to children’s eyewitness memory. Hypotheses concerned age, familiarity, and parenting practices (e.g., greater familiarity will predict greater accuracy).

Fathers from diverse family backgrounds (e.g., divorced, single, or step-fathers) and their 5- to 9-year-old children (N = 97; M = 7.90 years; 50% female) participated in guided activities (e.g., Simon Says, Charades) via Zoom. Approximately 3 weeks later, the children (without parents present) were interviewed about information regarding the guided activities that could be perceived as abuse-relevant within forensic settings (e.g., actions involving touching, hugging, and picture taking), as well as more innocuous facets of the interactions. Socioemotional (e.g., parenting) data were collected from standardized, psychometrically sound questionnaires.

Regressions examined unique predictors of proportion correct answers and omission errors for: (a) abuse-relevant questions (e.g., “Did your dad take any clothes off during that Simon Says game you played with him during the zoom?”), and (b) non-abuse-relevant questions (e.g., “Did you play thumb wrestling with your dad during the zoom?”). Child’s age was entered in Model 1. Then familiarity (i.e., proportion of weekly parent-child time spent with father) and paternal harsh parenting (i.e., parenting behaviors that involve verbal hostility and corporal punishment) were added (Model 2). Finally, Model 3 included the Familiarity x Paternal Harsh Parenting interaction.

Results indicated that older children were more accurate in answering questions. Moreover, a significant Familiarity x Paternal Harsh Parenting interaction emerged predicting memory scores for abuse-relevant questions (Figures 1-2), ps ≤ .035. Simple slopes analyses revealed that at 1 SD above the harsh parenting mean, more familiarity with father was associated with higher proportion correct scores, β = .52, p = .016, and fewer omission errors, β = -.51, p = .016. At 1 SD below the harsh parenting mean, familiarity was not associated with proportion correct scores, β = -.14, p = .300, or omission errors, β = .07, p = .614. Commission errors yielded floor effects.

Consistent with ecological models that emphasize the role of adaptation in fostering specialized skills and knowledge bases for children who grow up in threatening environments (e.g., Ellis et al., 2020), familiarity was associated with enhanced memory for abuse-relevant information in children who have experienced harsher treatment by their fathers. Findings highlight the importance of considering abuse relevance in combination with age and socioemotional factors when evaluating children’s eyewitness memory. Psychological and legal implications are discussed.

Authors

• Yuerui Wu, University of California - Davis
  Presenting Author

• Gail S. Goodman, University of California, Davis

• Lily Brown, University of California - Davis

• Dana T. Hartman, University of California - Davis

• Rayna Enriquez, University of California, Davis

• Daisy E. Vidales, University of California - Davis

• Miranda Kramer, University of California, Davis

• Jaxon Grandchamp, University of California - Davis