Elaborations and Denials in Children’s Responses to Yes–No Any/Some Questions in Forensic Interviews

Abstract

This study examined 379 4- to 12-year-old children’s answers to any/some and other yes–no questions in forensic interviews about sexual abuse (N = 10,041). Yes–no questions that include the terms any/some (e.g., “Did he say anything?”) often implicitly ask for elaboration when the answer is yes (“What did he say?”). However, children may give unelaborated responses to yes–no questions, fail to recognize implicit requests, and falsely respond “no.” As predicted, children gave more wh- elaborations in response to any/some questions than other yes–no questions, but younger children elaborated less often than older children. Also as predicted, children responded “no” more often to any/some questions than to other yes–no questions, and more often to “any” than to “some” questions. “No” responses were also more common when children were asked potentially vague anything/something questions and else/other/different questions. The results highlight the potential risks of asking children any/some questions.