Michael E Lamb

University of Cambridge | Cam · Department of Psychology

While there has been considerable research on investigative interviews with children over the last three decades, there remains much to learn. The aim of this paper was to identify some of the issues and prospects for future scientific study that most urgently need to be addressed. Across 10 commentaries, leading scholars and practitioners highligh...

While there has been considerable research on investigative interviews with children over the last three decades, there remains much to learn. The aim of this paper was to identify some of the issues and prospects for future scientific study that most urgently need to be addressed. Across 10 commentaries, leading scholars and practitioners highligh...

This proof-of- concept study focused on interviewers’ behaviors and perceptions when interacting with a dynamic AI child avatar alleging abuse. Professionals ( N = 68) took part in a virtual reality (VR) study in which they questioned an avatar presented as a child victim of sexual or physical abuse. Of interest was how interviewers questioned the...

This study compared two versions of the NICHD Protocol for interviewing young suspected sexual offenders: the Revised Suspect Protocol (RSP) and the Standard Suspect Protocol (SSP). The RSP incorporated relevant evidence-based practices informed by research on the value of (a) effectively explaining the suspects’ rights, (b) rapport building and su...

Positive and negative parental affect influence developing parent–child attachment relationships, especially during infancy as well as children’s social–emotional, academic, and behavioral functioning later in life. Increasingly, because both mothers and fathers can play central caregiving roles, the parenting qualities of both parents demand consi...

In this book, eminent scholars from varied disciplines detail how developmental science and the law shape one another across the lifespan. The chapters address fundamental questions about how human development influences laws and practices in the legal system and how the law and its practices influence development. The chapters also reveal how the...

Background The aim of this study was to determine whether stimulation and support in early childhood and best friendship quality in adolescence predict adult personality. Participants and procedure We used data from 123 individuals from an ongoing longitudinal study, with multiple assessment phases and modalities (observation, parental rating, sel...

In molti contesti professionali, compreso quello del Tribunale per i minorenni, si fa riferimento alla teoria dell'attaccamento e alla relativa ricerca, con fraintendimenti ampiamente diffusi che spesso si traducono in applicazioni scorrette. La finalità di questa dichiarazione di consenso è, pertanto, quella di migliorarne la comprensione, contras...

When responding to allegations of child sexual, physical, and psychological abuse, Child Protection Service (CPS) workers and police personnel need to elicit detailed and accurate accounts of the abuse to assist in decision-making and prosecution. Current research emphasizes the importance of the interviewer’s ability to follow empirically based gu...

Background Emotions can powerfully affect memory retrieval although this effect has seldom been studied in everyday contexts. Objective This study aimed to explore the association between children's verbal emotional expressions and the type of information reported during forensic interviews. Participants and setting The sample included 198 interv...

La théorie et les recherches sur l’attachement sont utilisées dans de nombreux cadres d’application, y compris dans les tribunaux compétents en matière familiale [1], mais les incompréhensions sont fréquentes et sources d’erreurs lorsqu’il s’agit de les mettre en pratique. L’objectif de cet article de consensus est donc d’accroître la compréhension...

This prospective longitudinal study investigated father involvement relative to mother involvement in parent dyads across two generations from the same family. Relative parental involvement was operationalized using measures of how much parents shared parenting responsibilities and to whom their children turned preferentially in various situations....

The goal of our study was to examine whether differences in the sensitivity and intrusiveness of fathers and mothers from gay-, lesbian-, and heterosexual-parent families (57 French couples, 47 Dutch couples, and 31 British couples) with their first-born infants were explained by gender or caregiver role, while controlling for nesting within famili...

Statements by alleged victims are important when child abuse is prosecuted; triers-of-fact often attend to nonverbal emotional expressions when evaluating those statements. This study examined the associations among interviewer supportiveness, children’s nonverbal emotions, and informativeness during 100 forensic interviews with alleged victims of...

La teoría y la investigación sobre el apego se utilizan en muchos contextos aplicados, incluidos los juzgados de familia, pero hay malentendidos muy extendidos y que a veces dan lugar a aplicaciones erróneas. El objetivo de este documento de consenso es, por lo tanto, mejorar la comprensión, contrarrestar la desinformación y dirigir el uso de la te...

During the transition from home to childcare, 70 15-month-old infants were videotaped, and their negative emotions were rated. Infants' attachments to mothers were assessed prior to child care entry and to care providers five months later using the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP). Infant heart rate was monitored at home, during adaptation to chil...

This study examined the effects of pre-trial preparation and pre-recorded cross-examinations on the linguistic complexity of recognition prompts (i.e., option posing or suggestive questions) used when questioning child victims in English criminal courts. The study also compared the linguistic complexity of recognition prompts that did and did not c...

Previous research on the links between music and posttraumatic resilience have typically relied on small sample sizes and case studies from clinical settings. To address this important gap, we conducted an online study to measure childhood trauma and adult musical engagement in everyday life in non-clinical contexts. The present study ( N = 634) in...

One hundred and one transcripts of conversations between volunteer workers purporting to be minors and convicted offenders in the United States of America who had groomed minors online for offline sexual encounters were analysed. Based on rapport building, sexual, and concealment variables, five offender profiles were identified using cluster analy...

Attachment theory and research are drawn upon in many applied settings, including family courts, but misunderstandings are widespread and sometimes result in misapplications. The aim of this consensus statement is, therefore, to enhance understanding, counter misinformation, and steer family-court utilisation of attachment theory in a supportive, e...

Because intensely reluctant children often fail to report being abused even when they are supportively interviewed, the Revised NICHD (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development) Protocol (RP) guides interviewers to delay discussion of sensitive topics and build rapport before scheduling a follow-up interview in which children might f...

Supportive forensic interviews conducted in accordance with the NICHD Revised Protocol (RP) help many alleged victims describe abusive experiences. When children remain reluctant to make allegations, the RP guides interviewers to 1) focus on rapport building and non-suggestive support in a first interview, and 2) plan a second interview to allow co...

Findings are presented from the second phase of a UK longitudinal study of 33 gay father, 35 lesbian mother, and 43 heterosexual parent families when their adopted children reached early adolescence. Participants predominantly lived in urban/suburban areas and were mostly white and well‐educated. Standardized interviews, observations, and questionn...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00914.].

Background: The division of non-paid labor in heterosexual parents in the West is usually still gender-based, with mothers taking on the majority of direct caregiving responsibilities. However, in same-sex couples, gender cannot be the deciding factor. Inspired by Feinberg’s ecological model of co-parenting, this study investigated whether infant t...

This study examined the quality of forensic interviews conducted by specially trained police officers in the Norwegian Barnahus between 2015 and 2017, using the sequential interview (SI) model, a Norwegian version of the extended interview model that has not previously been studied. Two hundred and seven interviews of alleged abused preschool child...

The Standard NICHD Protocol (SP) models the use of cognitively focused techniques for forensic interviewing whereas the Revised Protocol (RP) also emphasizes intensive rapport building and the provision of emotional support. Interviewers trained to use the RP build rapport better and are more supportive than those using the SP, thereby enhancing ch...

The purpose of this study was to examine the developmental course and implications of the personality metatraits ego resiliency and ego control across the first 3 decades of life. The sample consisted of 139 participants who were assessed 9 times between ages 2 and 33. Participants completed measures of ego resiliency, ego control, Big Five persona...

Few data exist on gender‐typed and gender‐segregated play in hunter‐gatherer societies, despite their unique demographic and cultural features which may influence children’s gendered play. Using naturalistic observations of Hadza (N = 46, 41% female) and BaYaka (N = 65, 48% female) hunter‐gatherer 3‐ to 18‐year‐olds from Tanzania and the Republic o...

We examined cross-cultural variation in children’s learning-through-participation in economic work in two forager societies; the Hadza of Tanzania and the BaYaka of the Republic of Congo. We used observational data from 46 Hadza (41% female) and 65 BaYaka (48% female) children and adolescents between the ages of 3 and 18; interview data from 73 Had...

Children often answer questions when they do not have the requisite knowledge or when they do not understand them. We examined whether ground rules instruction-to say "I don't know," to tell the truth, and to correct the interviewer when necessary-assisted children in applying those rules during an interview about a past event and whether doing so...

Differences between prosecutors and defense lawyers with respect to the centrality of the information sought and topic of the questions asked, and the effects on witnesses’ responses, were examined in 56 trial transcripts of 5- to 17-year-old children testifying as alleged victims of sexual abuse. Over 40% of all questions focused on peripheral con...

The attachment security of children in 30 gay father families, 29 lesbian mother families and 38 heterosexual parent families was investigated using the Friends and Family Interview (FFI) at the second phase of a longitudinal study. Children in gay father families showed significantly higher levels of secure-autonomous attachment than children in h...

Children’s testimony is often critical to the initiation of legal proceedings in abuse cases. In forensic interviews, the expression of emotions can powerfully enhance both the quality of children’s statements and perceptions that their statements are coherent and credible. However, children rarely express their emotions when reporting abusive even...

Twenty-seven autistic children and 32 typically developing (TD) peers were questioned about an experienced event after a two-week delay and again after a two-month delay, using the Revised National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Investigative Interview Protocol. Recall prompts elicited more detailed and more accurate respon...

In this brief review we reflect upon the key contributions of research examining children's eyewitness testimony. Children's testimonial ability became a focus of interest for researchers about forty years ago in the wake of several high profile child abuse cases that prompted questions about children's reliability in the face of problematic interv...

Wellbeing of gay fathers with children born through surrogacy A study of parental wellbeing in the U.K., France, and the Netherlands compared parents in 38 gay father families, 61 lesbian mother families, and 42 heterosexual parent families. In all family types, the parents had just become parents for the first time and had an infant aged around 4...

Macro-ratings of socio-emotional and cognitive qualities of interactions between children and forensic interviewers were examined in 95 interviews of 4- to-13-year-olds who disclosed sexual abuse. Lower quality interactions were more evident when children were recounting the abuse than during rapport-building or when children were discussing past d...

Twenty‐seven 6‐ to 15‐year‐old children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and 32 typically developing (TD) children were questioned about their participation in a set of activities after a two‐week delay and again after a two‐month delay using a best‐practice interview protocol. Interviews were coded for completeness with respect to the gist of t...

This study systematically assessed children’s disclosure processes and lawyers’ questioning about children’s disclosures in the courtroom. We analysed transcripts of 72 trials in which 5- to 17-year-old children testified as alleged victims of sexual abuse and found that children typically delayed disclosing abuse for over 6 months, with the length...

This study systematically assessed children’s disclosure processes and lawyers’ questioning about children’s disclosures in the courtroom. We analysed transcripts of 72 trials in which 5- to 17-year-old children testified as alleged victims of sexual abuse and found that children typically delayed disclosing abuse for over 6 months, with the length...

This study examined whether the implementation of Section 28 (S28) of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act (1999) and the introduction of mandatory Ground Rules Hearings reduced the complexity of the questions English lawyers asked when examining child witnesses. This study compared cases with (n = 43) and without (n = 43) the S28 special me...

This study examined whether the implementation of Section 28 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act (1999) improved lawyers’ questioning strategies when examining child witnesses in England. The government’s Section 28 pilot study involved judges holding Ground Rules Hearings, during which restrictions and limitations were placed on the dur...

Child maltreatment victims are often reluctant to report abuse when formally interviewed. Evidence-based guidelines like the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Standard Investigative Interview Protocol do not adequately address such reluctance because they are focused on cognitive rather than socioemotional strategies. The pre...

The present study aims at replicating earlier findings regarding the link between childhood trauma and young adults' health risk behaviours and extends previous work by examining potential moderating effects of demographic and trait characteristics. Specifically, the current study enables to disentangle individual differences in response to trauma...

Purpose The new citizen judge system in Japan was implemented in 2009. Further, a revision to the Code of Criminal Procedures, announced in 2016, stipulated that, from 2019, police interviews of suspects tried by citizen judges had to be recorded. Anticipating these changes to the criminal justice system in Japan, this study investigated public per...

This chapter reviews important aspects of children's development that affect their ability to provide useful information when interviewed about events they have experienced. The ability to organize the remembered details into a coherent form is important for both communication and for long‐term memory. Infantile amnesia curtails the ability of chil...

This chapter considers children who may be especially difficult to interview because they have learning, behavioral, social, or communicative difficulties that might affect how well they can recall and describe their experiences. Relevant studies examining children with developmental or intellectual disabilities (CWID) have almost exclusively been...

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book reviews what research has demonstrated about young witnesses' strengths and difficulties, the challenges that interviewers face when eliciting testimony from children, and how to effectively prepare children to be interviewed. It a...

In this chapter, the authors discuss their ongoing efforts to develop and evaluate variants of the Protocol that address the special circumstances that attend interviews with such reluctant witnesses. It is important to consider disclosure history, as well as the type of abuse and characteristics of the child, when planning for an interview and ant...

This chapter describes the various phases of the Protocol for young victims and witnesses and the research that informed them. Although the Protocol does not provide prescriptive advice about preparing for an interview, interviewers should consider a number of factors in advance of meeting children. In the introductory phase, the interviewer introd...

This chapter presents some closing thoughts on concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book examines the interview context and how it may influence children's testimony. Before considering issues that would benefit from the attention of researchers in the future, it is important to emphasize that forensic interviews need to b...

Systemic issues such as the quality of training provided, the availability of a structured interviewing model, and provision for continuing professional development, practice‐focused supervision, and regular opportunities for objective feedback on interviewing promote good interviewing practice better than how long interviewers have been working. C...

This chapter summarizes research that has examined the use of various aids to complement Protocol strategies when interviewing alleged victims and witnesses. Dolls are the most studied visual aids, largely because of concerns raised by researchers and the courts about whether they are inherently suggestive or place too many demands on young childre...

In this chapter, the authors summarize research examining whether use of the Protocol is associated with improved interviewing practice and enhances the nature of children's responding. They describe the results of seven field studies conducted in Canada, Israel, Japan, Korea, the U.K., and the U.S.; they demonstrate convincingly that interviewers...

This chapter presents the interview context, summarizing what researchers have learned about how the way in which children are prepared for an interview and how the strategies employed by the interviewer can also have a major impact on what children say. Just as there may be delays between children experiencing maltreatment and telling others about...

This chapter focuses on the impact that the use of the NICHD Protocol has on broader case‐related outcomes. In particular, it considers research examining whether the information elicited from children during Protocol interviews enhances assessments of their credibility and of their testimony more generally, the impact of the Protocol on the availa...

This chapter addresses the extent to which interviewers actually adhere to the recommendations that have emerged from the research on children's eyewitness testimony when conducting investigative interviews with alleged victims. For many years now, expert professional groups and individuals have published consensus statements or formal guidelines d...

It is clear that children as young as 3 years of age can respond to open‐ended questions, and that the NICHD Protocol can be used successfully when interviewing these very young children. Risky questions are even riskier when addressed to children aged 6 and under, and thus that forensic investigators need to make special efforts to maximize the am...

Children must describe maltreatment coherently for their testimony to be influential in court. We know little about how well children with intellectual disabilities (CWID) describe their experiences relative to typically developing (TD) children, despite CWID's vulnerability to maltreatment. We investigated children's reports of an experienced even...

This article summarizes panel discussions that took place at an international conference on shared parenting (SP) held in May 2017. The panelists were internationally recognized experts on the legal and psychological implications of custody arrangements and parenting plans. Seven broad themes dominated the discussions: whether or not there was pers...

In England and Wales, suspects must be given a police caution before they are questioned. The purpose of the caution is to explain a suspect’s right to silence as a protection against self-incrimination. However, the evidence on whether the caution fulfils its purpose is limited. The aim of the present study was to describe how cautions were delive...

The changing family roles and evidence that most infants form attachment relationships with both of their parents have sparked a debate about parenting arrangements when the parents of infants and toddlers separate. Misunderstanding of attachment theory and the available empirical evidence has obscured rather than clarified evidence-based decision-...

The present study explored the effects of different types of narrative practices on the accuracy and abundance of information elicited from children and the disclosure of secrets. Seventy-one children ages 3–6 years experienced a scripted encounter with a photographer; then they were interviewed about the event after participating in one of four di...

Socio-emotional dynamics were examined in 230 forensic interviews of 3- to -13-year-old Israeli children who disclosed chronic physical abuse that could be substantiated. Half of the children were interviewed using the Standard (SP) National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Protocol and the others using the Revised Protocol (RP) that...

The article provides a brief introduction to a special issue focused on shared parenting. The articles in the special issue provide up-to-date summaries of the research and scholarship relating to key questions and controversies around the effects of divorce and contrasting custody arrangements. Two articles focus on infant–parent attachments in se...

Study question: Are there differences in levels of parental wellbeing (parental stress, psychological adjustment, and partner relationship satisfaction) between gay-father families with infants born through surrogacy, lesbian-mother families with infants born through donor insemination, and heterosexual-parent families with infants born through IVF...

Little research has focused on the emotions felt during pregnancy and early parenthood as well as the initial quality of parenting displayed by first-time parents who conceived using assisted reproduction technologies (surrogacy, donor insemination, and in vitro fertilization). Research on primary and secondary caregivers in gay, lesbian, and heter...

OBJECTIVE: The current study investigated (a) how a composite measure of shyness comprising introversion and neuroticism relates to other well-known constructs involving social fears, and (b) whether mean levels of shyness vary for men and women depending on the adoption of various social roles. METHOD: Study 1 used a sample of 211 UK participants...

Recently, several studies in Western countries have experimentally investigated interviewing techniques designed to elicit true confessions from guilty suspects and to minimize false confessions by innocent suspects. This study was the first to explore these issues in Japan, with special focus on a rapport-based approach using a modified version of...