title: Consistency in children's reports of sexual and physical abuse.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The goal of the present study was to investigate the consistency of children's reports of sexual and physical abuse.
  
  
  METHODS
  A group of 222 children, ages 3-16 years, participated. As part of legal investigations, the children were interviewed twice about their alleged experiences of abuse. The consistency of children's reports of sexual and physical abuse was examined in the two interviews, in relation to age, type of abuse, gender, memory, suggestibility, and cognitive capabilities.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Older children were more consistent than younger children in their reports of sexual and physical abuse. Children were more consistent when reporting sexual abuse than physical abuse. Girls were more consistent than boys in sexual abuse reports. Consistency in sexual abuse reports was predicted by measures of memory, whereas consistency in physical abuse reports was not. Cognitive abilities did not predict consistency in sexual abuse or physical abuse reports.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Implications for understanding children's allegations of abuse are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis 95616, USA.
authors.forename: Simona
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ghetti
authors.forename: Gail S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Goodman
authors.forename: Mitchell L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Eisen
authors.forename: Jianjian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.forename: Suzanne L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Davis
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D017677:Age Distribution; D002648:Child; D002650:Child Abuse, Sexual / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory