| The present study was conducted to assess individual difference factors that may affect the accuracy of children's reports when interviewed with human figure drawings. Eighty-nine children between the ages of 3 and 6 years were interviewed with a human figure drawing approximately one week after an inoculation that involved pain and physical touch. Younger children provided fewer correct responses and more commission errors to misleading questions than older children. A significant interaction between parental Avoidance and children's distress was found for commission errors to the specific questions on the body drawing: When parents scored low in Avoidance, as children's stress level increased, their commission errors decreased.. In contrast, when parents scored high in Avoidance, as children's stress level increased, commission errors also increased. Additionally, a few children provided false reports of genital contact. The present study provides insights into children's memory performance on human figure drawings in general and the debate regarding the relation between stress and memory. |
