Thanks to the teachers and children at the following preschools and kindergartens: King David, Riviera, Emmanuel, Mentone, Tanti Park, Doveton Uniting Church, Dandenong, Brighton Grammar, Brighton Baptist, Murphy St. (Brighton), Woodbine, Willora, Clarendon St., Wirilda, and Lauriston. Thanks also to Matthew Scullin and Steve Ceci for providing the VSSC and their comments about this work, Paul Dudgeon for his assistance with the statistical analyses, and Claire Campbell, Melissa Hasty, Sarah Agnew, Catherine Croft, Erin Connell, and Rachel Same for their assistance with the project. This work was completed as a partial requirement for the first author's degree of Doctor of Psychology (Clinical).
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Research Report
The video suggestibility scale for children: how generalizable is children's performance to other measures of suggestibility?†
Article first published online: 2 JUL 2002
DOI: 10.1002/bsl.492
Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Issue
1099-0798/asset/cover.gif?v=1&s=27cb3cb3b3e789b2519ed5b84bdb198bf5ddfb33 "Behavioral Sciences & the Law")
Behavioral Sciences & the Law
Special Issue: Disability, Public Policy, and Employment
Volume 20, Issue 6, pages 699–716, November/December 2002
Additional Information
How to Cite
McFarlane, F. and Powell, M. B. (2002), The video suggestibility scale for children: how generalizable is children's performance to other measures of suggestibility?. Behav. Sci. Law, 20: 699–716. doi: 10.1002/bsl.492
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Publication History
- Issue published online: 2 DEC 2002
- Article first published online: 2 JUL 2002
- Abstract
- References
- Cited By
Abstract
This study explored the generalizability of the Video Suggestibility Scale for Children (VSSC), which was developed by Scullin and colleagues (Scullin & Ceci, 2001; Scullin & Hembrooke, 1998) as a tool for discriminating among children (aged three to five years) who have different levels of suggestibility. The VSSC consists of two subscales; Yield (a measure of children's willingness to acquiesce to misleading questions) and Shift (a measure of children's tendency to change their responses after feedback from the interviewer). Children's (N = 77) performance on each of the subscales was compared with their performance using several other measures of suggestibility. These measures included children's willingness to assent to a false event as well as the number of false interviewer suggestions and false new details that the children provided when responding to cued-recall questions about an independent true–biased and an independent false (non-experienced) event. An independent samples t-test revealed that those children who assented to the false event generated higher scores on the Yield measure. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that Yield was a significant predictor of the number of false details reported about the false activity, but not the true–biased activity. There was no significant relationship between the Shift subscale and any of the dependent variables. The potential contribution of the VSSC for forensic researchers and practitioners is discussed. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.