The Effects of Age and Delay on Responses to Repeated Questions in Forensic Interviews With Children Alleging Sexual Abuse Samantha J. Andrews and Michael E. Lamb University of Cambridge We examined transcripts of forensic interviews with 115 children aged between 3 and 12 years, interviewed between 1 day and 18 months after allegedly experiencing a single incident of sexual abuse. Repeated questions were categorized with respect to the reasons why interviewers asked questions again, how interviewers asked repeated questions, and how children responded. On average, interviewers asked 3 repeated questions per interview. As age increased, the frequency of question repetition declined but there was no association between repetition and delay. Interviewers most often repeated questions for clarification (53.1%), but questions were also repeated frequently to challenge children’s previous responses (23.7%), and for no apparent reason (20.1%). In response, children typically repeated (54.1%) or elaborated on (31.5%) their previous answers; they contradicted themselves less often (10.8%). Questions repeated using suggestive prompts were more likely to elicit contradictions. There was no association between age or delay and the reasons why questions were repeated, how they were repeated, and how children responded. These findings emphasize the importance of training forensic interviewers to repeat questions only when the children or interviewers seek clarification and to encourage children who are anxious or reluctant to disclose. All repeated questions should be open-ended and interviewers should explain to children why questions are being repeated. Keywords: repeated questions, child forensic interviews, sexual abuse, age, delay The primary aim of forensic interviews with alleged victims of abuse is to obtain truthful, consistent, and accurate accounts that are admissible in court and can advance the investigative pro- cess (American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children [APSAC], 2012; Home Office, 2011, section 3.1; Lamb, Hersh- kowitz, Orbach, & Esplin, 2008). Contradictory or nonsensical responses may reduce children’s testimonial credibility (Home Office, 2011, section 2.214; Semmler & Brewer, 2002), so inter- viewers are encouraged to avoid techniques that might undermine children’s consistency. The repetition of closed-ended questions has been identified as a practice likely to produce inconsistent responding, although there has been little research on question repetition in forensic contexts. In the present study, we thus explored whether age and the delay between the to-be-remembered event and the forensic interview were associated with the fre- quency of repeated questions and how children responded. Repeated Questions Child forensic interviewers may often repeat questions to make the request clear, to clarify details previously mentioned by the children (e.g., ambiguous or unclear responses), or to encourage children who are anxious or reluctant to disclose (La Rooy & Lamb, 2011). However, repeated closed-ended questions are sometimes considered problematic on the grounds that children may change details in their accounts and, thus, respond inconsis- tently (Lamb & Fauchier, 2001; Zajac, Gross, & Hayne, 2003), believing that interviewers are unsatisfied with their initial answers or that their initial answers were incorrect (Howie, Kurukula- suriya, Nash, & Marsh, 2009; Howie, Nash, Kurukulasuriya, & Bowman, 2012; Melinder, Scullin, Gravvold, & Iversen, 2007). Despite these concerns, interview guidelines often fail to pro- vide detailed guidance concerning the appropriate use of repeated questions (e.g., Anderson et al., 2010; Lamb et al., 2008), and even though some protocols counsel against question repetition, explic- itly discourage the repetition of closed-ended questions, and en- courage interviewers to explain why some questions were repeated (e.g., Home Office, 2011), questions appear to be repeated in many forensic interviews (La Rooy & Lamb, 2011). There has been very little field research addressing the potential problems associated with repeated questioning in real forensic interviews. However, the effects of question repetition are well established in the experi- mental literature. The next four sections discuss findings from laboratory experiments. Closed-Ended and Suggestive Repeated Questions Research conducted in experimental settings shows that children frequently modify their answers when questions are repeated sug- gestively (for reviews see Ceci & Bruck, 1995; Ceci & Friedman, 2000; Lyon, 2002). For example, Howie, Nash, Kurukulasuriya, and Bowman (2012) found that 4-, 6-, and 8-year-old children were sensitive to adult dissatisfaction, interpreting repeated ques- This article was published Online First December 16, 2013. Samantha J. Andrews and Michael E. Lamb, Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Michael E. Lamb, Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Free School Lane, Cambridge CB2 3RQ, United Kingdom. E-mail: mel37@ cam.ac.uk This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly. Law and Human Behavior © 2013 American Psychological Association 2014, Vol. 38, No. 2, 171–180 0147-7307/14/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/lhb0000064 171