Promoting effective interviewing of sexually abused children: A pilot study. Research on Social Work Practice 18(2):137–143

Objective: This study is centered on interviewing techniques with alleged child sexual abuse victims who do and do not disclose sexual abuse. Method: Ninety randomly selected videotapes are reviewed, and the interviewing tech-niques are recorded on a 69-item Child Sexual Abuse Interviewing Skills Instrument. Results: The nondisclosure children are younger and more likely to be males than females. The discriminant analysis of the instrument indicate the use of more “what and how ” questions in disclosure cases, whereas more closing questions are used in nondis-closure cases. Conclusions: Interviewers should maintain an attitude that additional information can be obtained from other sources, which will help the interviewer demonstrate patience and understanding, rather than leading the child to disclosure or false allegation