Factors that impact children's competence to testify: systematic analysis of qualitative data

Child abuse (CA) is a prevalent problem both in Lithuania and abroad with serious negative consequences for psychological health (Hillberg et al., 2011). Its investigation has so far received little attention in Lithuania even though it presents particular problems. Due to a lack of strong corroborating evidence, investigative interview with alleged victim are of central importance in CA investigations. In most cases, the childs testimony is the only available evidence that a decision can be made upon regarding was there an abusive behavior or not. The quality of the investigative interviews in such cases is poor worldwide: extensive use of closed questions may lead a child to make a wrongful statement (Ceci & Bruck, 1995). Until now, training efforts have generally failed in creating and maintaining improvements in interview quality (Cederborg et al., 200, Korkman et al., 2008, Sternberg et al., 2001). To address this situation, we have started a systematic analysis of qualitative data to find out factors that impact childrens competence to testify. Protocols and method. We chose systematic analysis of qualitative data (Corecetti, 2015) so that we could understand the importance of factors while testifying from the childs perspective or case studies which show processes on a deeper/situational level. Search methods: 1. The following databases were searched: Academic Search Complete, ERIC, PsycARTICLES and Web of Science. 2. Range of search terms were used using Bulls logic: (child* OR pupil* OR student* OR adolescent* OR yout*) AND (abilit* OR compet*) AND (testif* OR witness*). 3. Where available, appropriate methodological filters were used: articles only in English, published between 1990.01.01 and 2017.12.31, Full text articles. Exclusion criterias: 1. Research is quantitative or experimental; 2. Focus is not associated with impact on testifying; 3. Sample is greater than 18 years; 4. Sample has any kind of disorders (autism, intelectual etc.); 5. Purpose is systematic review or meta-analysis; 6. Duplicates, books, non-English language articles, Essays; In total 1294 articles were obtained. 229 duplicates were excluded, 814 references were excluded during title screening, 214 references were excluded during abstract screening leaving 34 full papers for further analysis. 17 of them are already analyzed, from which 3 articles have met all criterias above and 17 more left to analyze for the final result. Results. Results of the preliminary analysis show that childrens competency to testify can negatively influence such factors as: Lack of instruction, poor quality rapport building, close-ended questions, perspective setting, extorting interventions, reconstruction of dream experience, memory recovery practices, repeated use of same techniques by different specialists, memory work in general due to the risk of memory fabrication, language of the adults, The language of concepts and skills Childrens competency to testify can positively influence such factors as: displaying reality through anatomically detailed dolls, good evaluation of childs linguistic and communicative competences, language of the adults, The language of concepts and skills, the Wh- questions (who, what, when, where, why, how). Conclusion: After the analysis will be finished we will build a thematic map of factors that has an impact on childrens competency to testify, and this will become a ground for conducting further research on improving the quality of investigative interviews in CA cases.