Maternal Reminiscing Is Associated With Preschoolers’ Reports of Maltreatment During Forensic Interviews

Abstract

Children’s reports during forensic interviews regarding maltreatment allegations are often critical for legal processes and for guiding decisions regarding services for children and their families. Field research examining forensic interviews with children has identified a wide range in the amount of information children report to interviewers. Research examining associations between children’s forensic reports and their broader ecological and developmental contexts related to autobiographical memory would critically contribute to our understanding of children’s reports of trauma during forensic investigations. Guided by the sociocultural theory of autobiographical memory development and a self-determination perspective of interviewing child witnesses, associations between the number of allegation-relevant details reported by 52 preschoolers (M = 4.59 years old, SD = 1.06) during forensic interviews concerning substantiated maltreatment allegations and later maternal elaborative and autonomy supportive reminiscing from observations of mother–child interactions during a laboratory assessment were examined. Consistent with previous research regarding children’s autobiographical memory, a positive association between maternal elaborative reminiscing about everyday experiences with their children and the number of unique allegation-relevant details children reported during forensic interviews was observed, but only when mothers reminisced with their children in an autonomy supportive manner. Theoretical and practical implications for interviewing child witnesses are discussed.

Keywords

forensic interviewing child witnesses maltreatment maternal reminiscing elaborative reminiscing autonomy support

Each year in the United States, approximately 3.5 million children are involved in maltreatment reports, with 700,000 children determined to be substantiated victims of abuse or neglect (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2018). Many allegations of abuse and neglect lack corroborative evidence and witnesses other than the alleged perpetrator and the child to corroborate the claims (Herman, 2005). Under such circumstances, investigators often forensically interview children to obtain a report regarding the allegations. The information children provide during forensic interviews guides decisions regarding legal procedures and the child’s safety and well-being including whether further investigation, intervention, and prosecution are warranted.

Considerable variability in the number of allegation-relevant details children report during forensic interviews has been observed (Brown & Lamb, 2019; Lamb et al., 2007). There is a dearth of research, however, evaluating associations between children’s forensic reports and broader ecological and developmental factors related to autobiographical memory. Field research investigating children’s forensic reports has been limited to examining associations between the number of details provided with children’s age and gender (Brown & Lamb, 2019). Older children tend to report more unique details compared with younger children (Anderson et al., 2014; Lamb et al., 2003; Orbach & Lamb, 2000). Findings regarding children’s gender and their forensic reports are inconsistent, with some studies finding that females report more information (Lamb & Garretson, 2003) and are more likely to disclose abuse compared with males (Hershkowitz et al., 2005). Other studies have not supported an association between children’s gender and their forensic reports (Anderson et al., 2014). In addition to contributing to the theoretical understanding of maltreated children’s memory for traumatic experiences, identifying ecological and developmental factors associated with variability in children’s forensic reports can contribute to the refinement of developmentally sensitive recommendations for interviewing children.

The amount of information children tell forensic interviewers depends in part on their ability, willingness, and confidence to recount details from their past. In the context of interviewing children, a self-determination perspective underscores children’s autobiographical memory competencies and motivations to discuss the allegations as fundamental to eliciting rich forensic reports from children (McCauley & Santee, 2019). Self-determination theory is a robust framework of human motivation that has been applied to the preschool years (Ryan & Deci, 2000), including preschoolers’ autobiographical memory skills (Cleveland & Morris, 2014; Cleveland & Reese, 2005; Cleveland et al., 2007). A primary assertion of the self-determination theory is that individuals are more intrinsically motivated and, in turn, have higher engagement and performance when provided adequate structure to competently perform a task and when their autonomy is supported. The extent to which children’s need for structure and autonomy in talking about the past are supported in ecological contexts outside of forensic interviews, such as during everyday conversations with their parents, has been postulated as a key mechanism associated with children’s memory for traumatic events and their forensic reports (Lawson, Rodriguez-Steen, & London, 2018; McCauley & Santee, 2019; Salmon & Reese, 2015). In the current investigation, associations between the number of unique allegation-relevant details children recounted during forensic interviews concerning substantiated maltreatment and maternal elaborative (i.e., the extent to which mothers structure reminiscing conversations by asking questions, embellishing upon details, and confirming their children’s contributions) and autonomy supportive reminiscing (i.e., the extent to which mothers follow and expand upon topics introduced by their children) about everyday experiences with their children during laboratory assessments occurring after the forensic interviews were examined.

There is substantial correlational, longitudinal, and experimental evidence to suggest that the elaborative and autonomy supportive manner in which mothers discuss past shared experiences with their children is associated with children’s memory and engagement in talking about the past (Fivush, 2011; Wareham & Salmon, 2006; Wu & Jobson, 2019). The sociocultural theory of autobiographical memory development posits that children learn the form and function of narratives and develop the skills to retrieve and to communicate their past to others during early reminiscing conversations with their mothers (Nelson & Fivush, 2004). Although mothers are consistent in their reminiscing styles across the preschool years and when reminiscing about traumatic and everyday events with their children, there is considerable individual variability in maternal reminiscing styles among mothers (Bauer et al., 2007; Haden et al., 2009; Newcombe & Reese, 2004; Reese et al., 1993; Sales et al., 2003). During the preschool years, children internalize their mothers’ elaborative reminiscing style, which provides a general structure for children to recount and communicate a variety of experiences to others (Fivush, 2011; Nelson & Fivush, 2004). Children of highly elaborative mothers report more information and are more coherent and accurate when independently recalling events to an unfamiliar researcher compared with children of less elaborative mothers (Fivush, 2011; Wu & Jobson, 2019, for reviews). Although not equivalent to the context of forensic interviews, maternal elaborative reminiscing has been observed as positively associated with children’s memory for stressful experiences such as an injury resulting in an emergency room visit (Peterson, 2012; Peterson et al., 2007) or a disastrous tornado (Bauer et al., 2007).

Another important and distinct dimension of maternal reminiscing is the extent to which mothers are autonomy supportive. Mothers high in autonomy support follow and expand upon topics introduced by their children, encourage their children to contribute, and support their children’s perspectives (Cleveland & Reese, 2005; Grolnick et al., 1984; Principe et al., 2017). Mothers low in autonomy support are more controlling in dictating the conversation as evident by topic shifting and negations of children’s contributions. Autonomy supportive reminiscing is associated with children’s motivation, confidence, and engagement in reminiscing (Cleveland & Morris, 2014; Cleveland et al., 2007). Preschoolers of autonomy supportive mothers are more eager to talk about their past, including with unfamiliar researchers. Expanding this research into interviewing contexts, McCauley and Santee (2019) posited that the number of details reported by children during forensic interviews would be positively associated with the autonomy supportive manner in which mothers discuss past everyday experiences with their children during the preschool years.

Elaborative and autonomy supportive reminiscing are two distinct aspects of reminiscing styles in which mothers can simultaneously vary (Cleveland & Morris, 2014; Cleveland & Reese, 2005; Cleveland et al., 2007). A mother who embellishes upon details and asks many questions but in a controlling manner would be high in elaboration and low in autonomy support, whereas a mother who follows her child’s lead and allows her child to contribute to the conversation but asks few questions and makes few elaborations would be high in autonomy support and low in elaboration. Given that maternal elaborative reminiscing is associated with children’s understanding of narrative structure and autonomy supportive reminiscing is associated with children’s engagement, confidence, and willingness to reminisce, the association between the number of details children report during forensic interviews and maternal elaboration is expected to be moderated by maternal autonomy support during reminiscing in the present investigation. Children of mothers who are high in both elaboration and autonomy support during reminiscing provide more detailed and accurate reports when independently recounting everyday events to unfamiliar researchers compared with children of mothers who are high on one dimension and low on the other or who are low on both characteristics (Cleveland & Reese, 2005; Principe et al., 2017), suggesting that it may be most beneficial for child memory–related abilities for mothers to be high on both of these indices of reminiscing style.

The present investigation expands upon this prior work and the extant child forensic interviewing and autobiographical memory literatures by examining associations among the number of unique allegation-relevant details children reported during a forensic interview regarding substantiated maltreatment and maternal elaborative and autonomy supportive reminiscing observed during a laboratory assessment occurring approximately 7 months after the forensic interviews. Although our theoretical perspective is that maternal reminiscing would promote children’s reports during forensic interviews, prospective tests of maternal reminiscing on children’s forensic reports would present significant feasibility and potential ethical challenges. Asking parents to reminisce with their children prior to the interview would be impractical considering many parents do not accompany their children to interviews, especially if intrafamilial abuse or neglect is being investigated. In addition, asking children and families to engage in research activities while they are facing a significant crisis raises ethical concerns. Given that maternal reminiscing has been observed to be stable over the preschool years (Haden et al., 2009; Newcombe & Reese, 2004; Reese et al., 1993), the developmental period during which children’s forensic reports and maternal reminiscing were observed in the current study, delaying observations of mother–child reminiscing is a worthwhile methodological trade-off for providing initial empirical tests of the associations between children’s forensic reports and maternal elaborative and autonomy supportive reminiscing.

Emerging empirical evidence suggests that maternal reminiscing is associated with children’s autobiographical memory in high-risk developmental contexts, including among maltreating families (Salmon & Reese, 2015; Valentino, 2011). Previous publications from the data set in which the current sample was drawn reported positive associations between maternal reminiscing and children’s autobiographical memory during collaborative recall with their mothers (Lawson, Valentino, McDonnell, & Speidel, 2018) and children’s independent autobiographical memory specificity during an emotion cue word task (Lawson, Valentino, Speidel, McDonnell, & Cummings, 2020). In the present investigation, maternal elaborative reminiscing about everyday experiences with their children was hypothesized to be positively associated with the number of unique allegation-relevant details children recounted during forensic interviews but only when mothers were autonomy supportive during reminiscing. Moreover, the number of unique details children recalled during forensic interviews was anticipated to be positively associated with the number of details children recalled during reminiscing, suggesting consistency in children’s reports of traumatic and everyday experiences. The anticipated association between children’s forensic reports and the interaction of maternal elaborative and autonomy supportive reminiscing was expected to remain significant when accounting for children’s memory during collaborative recall with their mothers.

Method

Participants

Participants included 52 preschoolers and their mothers. All families in the current study participated in a larger randomized controlled trial in which mother–child reminiscing was observed during a laboratory assessment among 165 maltreated and 83 nonmaltreated 3- to 6-year-olds and their mothers. The nonmaltreated children are not of interest in the current study. Inclusion criteria for maltreating families in the larger project included the following: having a child between the ages of 3- and 6-years-old for whom the mother perpetrated at least one instance of abuse or neglect (see details below), mothers had custody of their child at the time of the assessment, and families were primarily English speaking, which was determined by maternal report. Families were recruited directly from the Department of Child Services (DCS) by family caseworkers. With maternal permission, DCS shared contact information with project staff. All families provided informed consent and a release form granting access to their DCS records.

DCS records were thoroughly inspected to confirm the child was a victim of substantiated maltreatment and to identify children who were forensically interviewed at a child advocacy center (CAC). Of the maltreated children in the larger project, 57 (35 female; 36.5% African American, 27.0% Caucasian, 36.5% Hispanic/other) were forensically interviewed at a CAC regarding substantiated abuse and neglect allegations prior to the laboratory assessment. DCS family caseworkers often interviewed the other 108 maltreated children participating in the larger study at their homes when initially responding to the report. Verbatim documentation of these non-CAC interviews was not available. Video recordings of the CAC interviews were viewed for this study after receiving maternal consent. Five children (three female) did not disclose abuse or neglect during the forensic interview and were excluded from the analyses.

Maltreatment classification

DCS reports were coded to identify maltreatment subtypes following the Maltreatment Classification System (MCS; Barnett et al., 1993), a multidimensional nosological system with operational definitions, inclusion and exclusion criteria, and exemplars of subtypes for categorizing maltreatment histories. Sexual abuse was identified if attempted or actual sexual contact occurred between the child and an adult. Physical abuse was coded if the child sustained nonaccidental injuries inflicted by a caregiver. Neglect was coded when the primary caregiver failed to meet the child’s basic needs for food, clothing, shelter, health care, education, hygiene, and/or safety. Emotional maltreatment was coded when records indicated chronic or extreme neglect and/or disregard of the child’s emotional needs, including witnessing domestic violence. Thirty-two DCS reports (19% of the 165 maltreating families in the larger project) were double-coded. Reliability was established (κs = 0.81–1.00).

Following the MCS, of the 52 children interviewed at a CAC who disclosed maltreatment, 7.7% disclosed sexual abuse, 23.1% disclosed physical abuse, 28.8% disclosed neglect, and 67.3% disclosed emotional maltreatment (55.8% via witnessing domestic violence and 11.5% via witnessing physical abuse against a sibling). Ten children (19.2%) disclosed multiple forms of abuse and neglect. All reports were substantiated per MCS standards. Virtually all reports (96.2%) were substantiated by DCS. For all but one child, children’s mothers were identified as a primary perpetrator in the investigation pertinent to the current study.

Procedures and Coding

Forensic interviews

The forensic interviews occurred between August 2011 and September 2017. Children were 3- to 6-years-old at the time of the interviews (M = 4.59, SD = 1.06). Of the 52 children, 9 were interviewed at a CAC on two separate occasions occurring approximately 145 days apart (Min. = 35, Max. = 288). Each interview corresponded with different allegations. The interview occurring closest to the laboratory assessment was used in the current investigation. Children who were interviewed twice at a CAC did not significantly differ from children who were interviewed once in the number of allegation-relevant details reported during the interview included in the current study, t(50) = 0.52, p = .61. Interviews included in the current investigation were conducted by five trained female forensic interviewers who had approximately 7 years of experience interviewing children (Min. = 2, Max. = 22). The interviewers were trained in ChildFirst®, a nationally recognized interviewing protocol for interviewing children. Video recordings of the interviews were available for all eligible children. The videos were viewed and transcribed verbatim. Identifiable information such as names, locations, and birthdays were removed from transcripts during transcribing.

Following established coding procedures (Lamb & Garretson, 2003; Orbach & Lamb, 2000), child and interviewer statements during the substantive portion of the interview beginning with the first question regarding the allegation or a spontaneous allegation-relevant detail disclosed by the child to the last allegation-relevant statement or question were coded. Invitation, directive, option-posing, and suggestive interviewer statements were identified. Invitations included statements used to elicit free-recall responses such as “Tell me what happened” and “Tell me more about (previously disclosed information).” Directive questions focused the child’s attention of a specific aspect of the event in the form of a wh- question (e.g., “Who was there?” “Where did that happen?”). Option-posing questions provided implicit or explicit potential answers for children to select, including yes/no and forced-choice questions (e.g., “Is he nice or not nice?”). Suggestive questions provided information that the child did not previously disclose during the interview or strongly communicated an expected answer (e.g., “Mom did that to you, right?”). Interviewer statements unrelated to the allegation such as statements regarding the interviewers’ and child’s roles and general instructions were coded as nonsubstantive. Allegation-relevant details provided by children defined as words or phrases describing individuals, objects, locations, and actions related to the allegation were identified. Details were only counted when new information was provided. Twenty-three percent of transcripts (n = 12) were double-coded. Reliability was established with absolute agreement, two-way mixed-effect, single-measure intraclass correlations (ICCs): invitations (.91), directive (.99), option-posing (.97), suggestive (.72), nonsubstantive statements (.94), and children’s unique allegation-relevant details (.99). A range in the number of unique allegation-relevant details reported during forensic interviews was observed (M = 129.60, SD = 89.18, Min. = 5, Max. = 481). A square-root transformation was performed to alleviate significant skew (Z_skew = 5.15, p < .001, raw; Z_skew = 1.69, p = .09, transformed).

Laboratory assessment

Approximately 7 months after the forensic interview (Mdn = 207 days, Min. = 32, Max. = 829), mothers and children engaged in a reminiscing task during a laboratory assessment. The majority of families (75%) completed the laboratory assessment within a year of the forensic interview. Services received between the forensic interview and laboratory assessment were identified by DCS family caseworkers. Many families (n = 32, 61.5%) received services including family casework, homemaker aid, Homebuilders®, parent education, family-centered services and counseling, and individual counseling/therapy.

Maternal reminiscing

Following the Autobiographical Emotional Events Dialogue procedure (Koren-Karie et al., 2003), mothers and their children reminisced about four unique events that they experienced together where the child felt happy, sad, scared, and angry. Mothers elected the events to discuss in a room separate from their children. Mothers wrote brief reminders of the events on index cards that they could reference during reminiscing. If mothers selected events that may have been traumatic to their children, such as DCS involvement, or events that occurred too early in development for children to recall (i.e., during infancy), mothers were encouraged to select another event. Discussions of traumatic events were discouraged to maintain consistency in event valence and intensity across all families, maltreating and nonmaltreating. Mothers were instructed to talk with their children like they normally would at home. Reminiscing was self-paced and did not have time restrictions. Reminiscing occurred in a private room without the presence of researchers and was videotaped. Examples of common events discussed include going to McDonald’s (happy), losing a pet (sad), a thunderstorm (scared), and fighting with a sibling (angry).

Reminiscing videos were transcribed verbatim. Statements were partitioned into utterances defined as subject–verb propositions. Following established coding schemes (Principe et al., 2017; Sales et al., 2003; Van Bergen et al., 2009), maternal wh- questions (invitations and directive questions), yes/no questions (option-posing questions), elaborative statements, and confirmations were identified. Maternal provisions of new information regarding the event were coded as elaborative statements. Affirmations of children’s contributions were coded as confirmations, which are a primary characteristic of maternal elaboration (Wu & Jobson, 2019). New details recalled by children that were not previously stated were coded as unique memory contributions. The number of nonrepetitive wh- questions, yes/no questions, elaborative statements, confirmations, and child memory contributions was summed across the entire reminiscing task. Each variable was square-root transformed to alleviate significant positive skew (Z_skews > 3.21, ps < .001). The four transformed maternal reminiscing variables were summed to form the elaborative reminiscing composite, which had adequate internal consistency (α = .76). The maternal elaborative reminiscing composite and child memory variables were not significantly skewed after transformations (Z_skew = 1.06, p = .29; Z_skew = 0.35, p = .73, respectively). Researchers double-coded 20% of the transcripts from the families in the larger project (n = 50). Reliability was achieved with absolute agreement, two-way mixed-effect, single-measure ICCs, mean ICCs = .83–.96.

Maternal autonomy support was coded from watching the reminiscing videos. Adapted from previous coding schemes (Cleveland & Reese, 2005; Grolnick et al., 1984; Koren-Kaire et al., 2003; Principe et al., 2017), maternal autonomy support was rated holistically on a 9-point scale, with higher values indicating more autonomy supportive behaviors during the entire task. Mothers who expanded on topics introduced by their children, encouraged their children to participate, and supported their children’s contributions by following up on this information were rated high on autonomy support. Mothers were rated low on autonomy support if they frequently changed topics and negated their children’s contributions. See examples below.

High autonomy supportive maternal reminiscing

Mother:

How did you feel?

Child:

Sad.

Mother:

Sad? Why did you feel sad?

Low autonomy supportive maternal reminiscing

Mother:

How did you feel?

Child:

Sad.

Mother:

Sad? No, you were happy.

Researchers double-coded 20% of the videos in the entire database for autonomy support (n = 50). Reliability was established with absolute agreement, two-way mixed-effect, single-measure ICCs (ICCs > .70). Because maternal autonomy support was rated across the entire reminiscing task, analyses examining the effects of event valence were not conducted.

Results

Demographic characteristics of the 52 children who were forensically interviewed at a CAC and disclosed maltreatment were compared with that of the 108 maltreated children in the larger project who were not forensically interviewed at a CAC. Children interviewed at a CAC were significantly older (M = 5.31 years old, SD = 1.04) compared with the maltreated children who were not forensically interviewed at a CAC (M_age = 4.74, SD = 1.15), t(158) = 3.01, p < .01, d = .52. More females (n = 32) were forensically interviewed at a CAC compared with males (n = 20), χ²(1) = 4.56, p = .03. The odds of being interviewed at a CAC was 2.06 times higher among females. The ethnicities of children who were interviewed at a CAC did not significantly differ from the ethnicities of children who were not interviewed at a CAC, χ²(2) = 1.27, p = .53. For the children interviewed at a CAC, child ethnicity was not significantly associated with maternal reminiscing and child memory variables in a series of analyses of covariance controlling for child age and gender, Fs < 1.69, ps > .20. Child race was not significantly associated with the type of allegation (i.e., abuse, neglect, emotional maltreatment), χ²(4) = 3.83, p = .43. Children who were interviewed regarding different subtypes of maltreatment allegations (i.e., abuse, neglect, emotional maltreatment) did not significantly differ in the number of allegation-relevant details provided during the interviews, F(2, 47) = 0.37, p = .70.

Whether families received DCS-related services after the forensic interview was not significantly associated with maternal elaboration, F(1, 48) = 0.24, p = .63; maternal autonomy support, F(1, 48) = 0.78, p = .38; and child memory during reminiscing, F(1, 48) = 0.03, p = .88, controlling for child age and gender. The number of services received was not significantly associated with reminiscing, rs < .04, ps > .80. Services provided to maltreating families, including family-centered services and counseling, traditionally do not incorporate methods to bolster targeted dyadic interactions such as mother–child reminiscing (Valentino, 2017).

In total, 7,948 substantive interviewer questions were identified: 5.12% were invitations, 41.38% directive, 49.20% option-posing, and 4.30% suggestive. Substantive questions were summed to form a composite that had adequate internal consistency (α = .64). There were 4,782 nonsubstantive interviewer statements. Descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations are shown in Table 1. Children recounted more unique details as child age and interviewers’ substantive questions increased. A significant and positive association emerged between the number of details reported by children during the interview and during reminiscing with their mothers. Bivariate associations between maternal elaborative and autonomy supportive reminiscing and unique allegation-relevant details recounted by children were not significant.

Table 1.

Means, Standard Deviations, and Bivariate Correlations Among Primary Study Variables.

Variable	M (SD)	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Child demographic characteristics
1. Age	4.59 (1.06)	—
2. Gender	—	.24^†	—
Mother–child reminiscing
3. Maternal elaborative reminiscing	11.01 (3.60)	−.02	.27^†	—
4. Maternal autonomy support	4.63 (1.44)	.20	−.02	.10	—
5. Child reminiscing memory	2.86 (1.26)	.19	.11	.57**	.23	—
Forensic interview
6. Interviewer substantive questions	152.85 (70.24)	.34*	.02	−.17	.07	.12	—
7. Interviewer nonsubstantive statements	91.96 (96.80)	−.18	−.16	.05	−.06	.01	.33*	—
8. Child allegation–relevant details	10.78 (3.68)	.52**	.02	−.01	.16	.28*	.82**	.09

Note. N = 52. Mother–child reminiscing variables and child allegation–relevant details were square-root transformed to alleviate significant positive skew. Gender = 0 (female), 1 (male). Correlations with gender are point-biserial correlations.

^†p < .10. *p < .05. ** p < .001.

A hierarchal linear regression was conducted to examine the hypothesis that maternal elaborative reminiscing would be positively associated with the number of unique allegation-relevant details recounted by children during forensic interviews when mothers were autonomy supportive. Child age and gender were entered as covariates in the first block of the model along with interviewer substantive questions, interviewer nonsubstantive statements, and child unique memory contributions during reminiscing. Including interviewer substantive questions and nonsubstantive statements provided statistical control for differences among the conversational contexts in which children’s forensic reports were elicited. Maternal elaborative and autonomy supportive reminiscing were entered in the second block. The interaction between maternal elaborative and autonomy supportive reminiscing was entered in the third block. All continuous predictors were mean-centered. The assumption of multicollinearity was not violated as indicated by tolerance values greater than .53 and variance inflation factor values less than 1.88 (Field, 2013). In addition, none of the individual cases had undue influence on the model (Cook’s distance values < .17). The model results are presented in Table 2.

Table 2.

Hierarchical Linear Regression Examining Total Unique Allegation-Relevant Details Children Recounted During Forensic Interviews.

Predictors	Block 1			Block 2				Block 3
Predictors	R ²	b (SE)	β	R²Δ	R ²	b (SE)	β	R²Δ	R ²	b (SE)	β
Child age	.78***	.75 (.27)	.22**	.01	.79***	.77 (.27)	.23**	.02*	.81***	0.79 (.26)	.24**
Child gender		−.69 (.54)	−.09			−.95 (.57)	−.13			−1.13 (.55)	−.15*
Interviewer substantive questions		.04 (.01)	.78***			.04 (.01)	.82***			0.04 (.01)	.83***
Interviewer nonsubstantive statements		−.01 (.01)	−.14^†			−.01 (.01)	−.16*			−0.01 (.01)	−.26**
Child reminiscing memory		.45 (.20)	.15*			.21 (.26)	.07			0.17 (.25)	.06
Maternal elaborative reminiscing						.14 (.10)	.14			0.11 (.09)	.10
Maternal autonomy support						.02 (.18)	.01			−0.10 (.18)	−.04
Elaborative × Autonomy Support										0.14 (.06)	.19*

Note. N = 52. Mother–child reminiscing variables and child allegation–relevant details were square-root transformed to alleviate significant positive skew. Gender = 0 (female), 1 (male).

^†p < .10. *p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

Each block of the model accounted for a significant amount of variance in the number of unique allegation-relevant details children reported, F(5, 46) = 33.28, p < .001 for Block 1; F(7, 44) = 24.16, p < .001 for Block 2; and F(8, 43) = 23.76, p < .001 for Block 3. Results from Block 3 revealed a positive association between children’s age and the number of details recounted during the interview (b = 0.79, p = .004). Females recounted significantly more unique details compared with males (b = −1.13, p = .046). Children who were asked more substantive questions during the interview recounted significantly more unique allegation-relevant details (b = 0.04, p < .001). Children reported fewer unique details as the number of nonsubstantive interviewer statements increased (b = −0.01, p = .004). Although a significant association emerged in Block 1, the association between children’s contributions during reminiscing and unique allegation-relevant details during the forensic interview was nonsignificant in Block 3 (b = 0.17, p = .50). Maternal elaboration and autonomy support during reminiscing were not significantly associated with the number of unique details children recalled during the forensic interviews (b = 0.11, p = .26; b = −0.10, p = .58, respectively). However, a significant interaction between maternal elaboration and autonomy support during reminiscing emerged, b = 0.14, p = .03.

Simple slopes analyses were conducted at one standard deviation above and below the means of maternal elaborative and autonomy supportive reminiscing (Figure 1). Maternal elaborative reminiscing was significantly and positively associated with the number of unique allegation-relevant details children reported during the forensic interview when maternal autonomy support during reminiscing was high, b = 0.30, p = .01. However, maternal elaborative reminiscing was not significantly associated with the number of unique allegation-relevant details reported by children when maternal autonomy support during reminiscing was low, b = −0.09, p = .51.

Figure 1.

Association between the interaction of maternal elaborative reminiscing and autonomy supportive reminiscing and the number of unique allegation-relevant details children reported during forensic interviews regarding substantiated maltreatment allegations. Error bars represent standard errors.

Discussion

Identifying ecological and developmental factors associated with children’s reports during forensic interviews is critical to refining empirically based recommendations for interviewing children. Maternal reminiscing has been identified as theoretically relevant to children’s reports in investigative contexts (Klemfuss & Olaguez, 2018; Lawson, Rodriguez-Steen, & London, 2018; McCauley & Santee, 2019). The current investigation, novel in its approach, incorporated field observations of forensic interviews among maltreated children with later laboratory observations of mother–child reminiscing to evaluate associations between the number of unique allegation-relevant details children reported during forensic interviews and maternal elaborative and autonomy supportive reminiscing. Consistent with our hypothesis, maternal elaborative reminiscing was positively associated with the number of allegation-relevant details children reported during forensic interviews among children of mothers who were autonomy supportive.

The observed association between maternal elaborative reminiscing, when maternal reminiscing was autonomy supportive, and children’s forensic reports is consistent with theoretical and empirical work regarding preschoolers’ autobiographical memory (Fivush, 2011; Nelson & Fivush, 2004; Wareham & Salmon, 2006) and recent theoretical accounts of children’s reports during forensic interviews (McCauley & Santee, 2019). During the preschool years, maternal elaborative reminiscing is associated with children’s internal structure for telling others about their past and reinforces children’s autobiographical memory by providing opportunities for children to practice conversing with others and retrieving event details. Maternal elaborative reminiscing has been observed as positively associated with children’s memory during collaborative recall with their mothers and during independent recall with an unfamiliar researcher (Fivush, 2011, for review). Maternal elaboration, however, may only be positively associated with children’s autobiographical memory when mothers are autonomy supportive during reminiscing (Cleveland & Morris, 2014; Cleveland et al., 2007).

In the current investigation, maternal elaborative reminiscing was positively and significantly associated with the number of unique allegation-relevant details children recounted during forensic interviews when maternal autonomy supportive reminiscing was high and when statistically controlling for variability in interviewers’ questions and statements, children’s memory during reminiscing, and children’s age and gender. The observed associations between maternal reminiscing and children’s forensic reports are strengthened by including children’s memory during reminiscing in the model. Children’s memory during the forensic interview was positively associated with their memory during reminiscing, suggesting consistency between recall for traumatic and everyday experiences in terms of the number of unique details provided. This association, however, was only significant before entering maternal elaboration and autonomy support into the model. Maternal reminiscing was associated with children’s independent reports during forensic interviews above and beyond children’s memory contributions during reminiscing. The maternal reminiscing interaction accounted for a 2% increase in the amount of variance explained. This is a small but significant change to the final model that accounted for large percentage of the variance (81%) in children’s forensic reports. Given that mothers reminisced with their children about everyday events, such as a time their child felt angry, the observed association between maternal reminiscing and children’s reports of traumatic instances of abuse and neglect further supports and strengthens sociocultural perspectives of autobiographical memory development (Fivush, 2011; Nelson & Fivush, 2004).

Additional unique associations between children’s characteristics and their forensic reports emerged. Older children provided more unique details than younger children (Anderson et al., 2014; Lamb et al., 2003; Orbach & Lamb, 2000). Consistent with autobiographical memory differences between males and females, females in the current study provided more unique details than males during the forensic interviews (Fivush, 2011; Lamb & Garretson, 2003). Although significant associations between maternal reminiscing and child gender were not observed, females may be socialized more generally to talk in more detailed ways about their past (Fivush, 2011). Children provided more details as interviewers’ substantive questions increased. The negative association between nonsubstantive interviewer statements and children’s reports likely reflects the use of more nonsubstantive statements with children who were less focused on the task and, in turn, provided fewer allegation-relevant details.

Few researchers examining forensic interviews with children have had the opportunity to collect data regarding children’s broader ecological and developmental contexts. The current investigation incorporated data from videotaped forensic interviews at a CAC for maltreated children who were later involved in a larger project in which mother–child interactions were observed. Although our theoretical perspective is that maternal reminiscing would promote children’s reports during forensic interviews, a limitation of the current study is that we were not able to fully test directionality because the CAC interviews occurred prior to the laboratory assessment in which mother–child reminiscing was observed. Prospective designs examining the effects of ecological and developmental factors on children’s forensic reports face significant feasibility and potential ethical challenges such as requesting research participation during a time of crisis. Supporting the methodological design of the current investigation, longitudinal studies demonstrate maternal reminiscing styles are stable across the preschool period (Haden et al., 2009; Newcombe & Reese, 2004; Reese et al., 1993). Although these previous findings suggest that our observations of mother–child reminiscing should be representative of mother–child reminiscing behaviors prior to the forensic interview, an alternative interpretation of our results is that children’s memory skills demonstrated during the forensic interviews promoted later maternal reminiscing. Bidirectional relationships between mother and child input during reminiscing have been observed; however, longitudinal evidence underscores the importance of earlier maternal reminiscing on later maternal and child input even when controlling for children’s earlier memory skills (Newcombe & Reese, 2004; Reese et al., 1993). Replication of the current findings with more proximate observations of family interactions and forensic interviews and with more participants to enhance the statistical power that was achievable with the current sample size will be necessary to clarify the directionality of the present observations.

In addition, the accuracy of children’s memory during the forensic interviews and of mother–child reminiscing was not evaluated in this study. Laboratory research suggests that elaborative maternal reminiscing promotes accuracy and mitigates children’s suggestibility (Klemfuss et al., 2016) but may hinder the reliability of children’s reports if mothers introduce inaccurate postevent information (Lawson et al., 2018; Principe et al., 2017). Future research examining associations between maternal reminiscing and the accuracy of children’s reports in contexts that approximate those to which children testify would further inform the understanding of children’s autobiographical memory and recommendations for interviewing children.

Maternal elaborative and autonomy supportive reminiscing, although stable across the preschool years, can be improved with training (Cleveland & Morris, 2014; Fivush, 2011). If future research continues to support associations between children’s autobiographical memory in forensically relevant contexts and maternal reminiscing, interventions aimed to bolster maternal elaborative and autonomy supportive reminiscing may improve children’s forensic reports of emotionally salient experiences. Brief interventions among maltreating families successfully increase maternal elaboration and sensitive guidance during reminiscing, with associated increases in children’s memory contributions during collaborative recall with their mothers (Valentino et al., 2019). Whether such interventions would additionally improve children’s independent reports of emotionally salient experiences in contexts akin to forensic interviews is an important direction for future research.

Footnotes

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Carolyn Hahn and the staff at the Child Abuse Services, Investigation, and Education (CASIE) Child Advocacy Center in St. Joseph County, Indiana, for their invaluable assistance with this project. The authors are also grateful to the children and families that participated in this study, the H2H project staff, and the Department of Child Services of St. Joseph County.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed the receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was supported by Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Grant 5 R01 HD071933 awarded to Kristin Valentino.

ORCID iD

Monica Lawson

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