Pros and Cons of Using the Interview Technique

The interview technique is a directed conversation with a therapist, clinician, researcher,
or employer to elicit information from an individual for purposes of diagnosis, treatment,
research or employment. An interview may be conducted by telephone, face to face, or online via
skype or video calls. An interview may either be structured or unstructured. This paper explores
the pros and cons of using the interview technique with children and adolescents.
The interview format allows the interviewer to ask probing or follow-up questions to the
child or adolescent. Probing questions are important in accurately scoring the child’s intended
meaning. It is relevant when dealing with children because their language abilities and
proficiency levels differ depending on their developmental stage. Some of the questions could be
intended to understand sophisticated phenomena, and it is important to ask follow-up questions
to clearly capture the child’s response (Hodges,1990). It also ensures that the child can get a
simplified version of the question and thus guide them in providing accurate answers.
Interviews provide a more supportive psychosocial context that is important in bolstering
the child’s overall memory. Interviews, especially in forensic research, rely on a child’s accuracy
to retrieve events from memory as they occur. The success of this retrieval is dependent on a
variety of factors, such as the interviewer and the overall context or environment of the child. An
interview helps a child function at a higher cognitive level. An interview provides a social
context that research shows have a direct effect on the child’s cognitive performance, emotions,
perception, as well as memory. Further, research studies have shown that competence levels in
individual children can increase dramatically with the availability of social support and drop
significantly with the removal of social support. Thus, the use of the interview technique in

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children and adolescence is advantageous as it allows for the provision of social support, which
enhances the respondent’s performance.
Further, when the interviewer offers support, they have a calming or relaxing effect that
reduces the negative emotional states that may affect a child’s or an adolescent’s cognitive
processes. Besides, an anxiety-provoking environment affects cognitive processes leading to a
competition for mental processes. The child then concentrates more on the anxiety and less on
the task at hand. This would yield undesirable results in an interview as an interviewer needs the
child or adolescent to concentrate fully on the interview questions for accurate answers. Cohen
(2004) argues that support reduces interference caused by irrelevant feelings, thoughts and
distraction. Support enhances adaptive appraisal and coping mechanisms, thereby enhancing
cognitive performance. Support provided during an interview by the interviewer is necessary for
optimal cognitive performance. It ensures that the child or adolescent is at their optimal mental
state and thus enhances the accuracy of responses provided during the interview session.
Additionally, when a child is in a more supportive context, they are at a better state to regulate
their emotions and liberate their attentional resources, which are then deployed for retrieval of
relevant memory.
A forensic interview is a major component of conducting a comprehensive investigation
of child abuse. The interview technique in forensic research is recognized as a legally sound and
developmentally sensitive method of collecting factual and accurate data relating to allegations
of exposure to violence and abuse. Thus, the efficiency of this technique is empirically proven.
When conducted by a neutral and competently trained professional, it is effective in gathering
information and is thus a crucial part of the larger investigative process. The interview method
allows for repetition, which is important in obtaining new or more complete information from a

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child or adolescent (Cordón et al., 2005). However, studies have conflicted on the effectiveness
of repetition as an effective technique during interviews. Some scholars argue that repeating
questions may make children alter their statements as they may think that their earlier responses
are being doubted. Others argue that repeating questions may make children provide more
accurate and complete answers, thus completing statements provided earlier. It is therefore
important that interviews use repeating carefully to ensure the effects are positive.
However, interviews may have negative effects subjecting the child to intimidation and
frustration. Since interviews entail an exchange between children or adolescents and
interviewers, who are usually adults, they present an opportunity for power differential, which
may influence the outcome (Saywitz et al., 2019). The interviewer may appear intimidating and
unsupportive to the child, consequently inhibiting children and adolescents from relaying
accurate information. Such a context may promote denial, reticence, and children may refuse to
tell the interviewer what they know (Saywitz et al., 2019). Such a situation would affect the
outcome of the interview. When an interviewer has to deal with uncooperative children and
adolescents, they may come out as intimidating and may fail to offer the necessary support. Lack
of support has effects on the child’s cognitive performance and may hinder memory retrieval.
The interview technique is open to suggestibility, and this affects the accuracy of the
information provided. Historically, young children have been viewed as being vulnerable to
suggestion (Ceci & Friedman, 2000). Children and adolescents are affected more by
suggestibility compared to older persons. Suggestibility occurs when the interview provides a lot
of support or one whose effects are negative to the child or adolescent (Saywitz et al., 2019).
When this happens, the child’s or adolescent’s suggestibility may be heightened, making them
tell the interviewer what they think he or she wants to hear as opposed to relaying accurate

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information. When an interviewer behaves in a warm and friendly manner, it may promote social
desirability where the child starts to please the interviewer and gain their approval. This tends to
increase compliance and acquiescence. According to Rutter & Stevenson (2008), if an
interviewer shows support in a directive manner, such as by selectively reinforcing certain
responses provided by the interviewer, the child’s suggestibility could be exacerbated. For
instance, praise on certain responses could selectively reinforce inaccurate information provided
during the interview. A child may tend to report information that is inclined towards pleasing the
interviewer instead of relaying the truth, therefore, affecting the outcome of the interview
(Saywitz et al., 2019). Thus, the interview technique is vulnerable to child suggestibility, and this
may influence the truthfulness of the information collected by the interviewer.
Another con of using the interview technique when dealing with children is keeping their
attention. Children tend to have very short attention spans. The interview may struggle to keep
the child attentive and interested throughout the session (Magnusson et al., 2020). Another
challenge is how to deal with questions that are developmentally sensitive. An interviewer must
rephrase and frame the question in a language that the language understands and one that is not
too sensitive for their age. This may be quite a challenge to the interviewer as there is individual
difference in children. While some may understand the question after a small alteration, others
may still have no idea of what the interviewer is asking, even after several attempts at rephrasing
the question. Research shows that young children from the age of around three to four can
provide a reliable witness statement in forensic interviews (Magnusson et al., 2020). However,
this age is still characterized by limited cognitive and verbal abilities, and this may be a
challenge to the interviewer.

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Overall, the interview technique is pivotal to forensic research. Oftentimes, it is the first
point of contact between a child and mental health systems, social service or legal assistance.
Therefore, it is evident that interviews are very important in forensic research. There are pros and
cons associated with the use of the interview technique when dealing with children and
adolescents. Evidence conducted shows that some cons of using interviews can be offset if
interviewers are better equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills. For instance, an
interviewer can be supportive during the interview without necessary being suggestive and
therefore eliciting accurate responses from the child. Support and praise can be effective as long
as they are not contingent on responses given by the child or adolescent. Therefore, when
conducted properly, interviews are helpful in acquiring information from a child or adolescent
that is necessary for forensic research, in therapy, as well as in medical settings.

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References

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