Caregiver Familiarity and Children’s Eyewitness Memory: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Children’s memory for interactions with familiar caregivers is critical for the investigation of alleged interpersonal violence involving close family members. Instead, many child eyewitness accuracy studies to date test eyewitness memory for interactions with briefly seen strangers. In this pilot study, we examined children’s memory and suggestibility for interactions with their fathers, who varied in degree of “caregiver familiarity” (contact time as a caregiver) with their children. Fathers and one of their 5- to 10-year-olds (N = 97; M_age = 7.90 years; 49% female; 56% White) participated in guided activities via Zoom. Three weeks later, each child (individually tested, without parents present) was interviewed regarding eyewitness memory for the activities. Some interview questions focused on neutral content of the interactions without implications of interpersonal boundaries, whereas others concerned physical or relational boundaries (e.g., kissing, touching, undressing). Fathers’ caregiver familiarity was associated with more accurate boundary-related memory reports in children. This type of familiarity also interacted with harsh parenting to predict neutral memory: Children who received harsher treatment by their fathers evinced lower correctness scores on neutral event content, but only when children had less contact with fathers than with other caregivers. Child age predicted memory accuracy. Implications of this correlational pilot study of child eyewitness memory are discussed.