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Interviewing children
1University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Nursing, Department of Women's & Children's Health 27599, USA.
Insights
Children as young as three can provide detailed accounts of adverse health events. Researchers can improve data accuracy by understanding how children
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Health Research
- Child Psychology
- Qualitative Research Methods
Background:
- Shift in health research focus from studying children to gathering information directly from them.
- Recognition of children's capacity for detailed recall of adverse events, including illness and hospitalization, from a young age.
- Understanding children's use of 'scripts' to process and recount life experiences.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore the capabilities of children in providing direct accounts of their experiences.
- To identify factors influencing the quality of children's recall in research settings.
- To guide researchers in selecting optimal interviewing strategies for obtaining accurate information from children.
Main Methods:
- Review of recent scholarship on children's narrative competence.
- Analysis of factors influencing children's recall, such as interview content, timing, number, and structure.
- Consideration of children's cognitive and linguistic development in information gathering.
Main Results:
- Children aged three and older can offer graphic descriptions and possess strong recall of adverse health experiences.
- Interview parameters significantly impact the completeness, accuracy, and consistency of children's event recall.
- Existing research, though sometimes conflicting, provides insights into effective interviewing techniques.
Conclusions:
- Researchers can elicit reliable information directly from children about their health experiences.
- Strategic interview design is crucial for maximizing the fidelity of children's reported experiences.
- Leveraging knowledge of children's narrative competence enhances the validity of pediatric health research findings.
Abstract:
The focus in health-related research on children has shifted from seeking information about children to seeking information directly from them. Children, even as young as three years old, can give graphic descriptions and have excellent recall of experiences related to adverse events, such as illness and hospitalization. Children use scripts as the primary means of anticipating, comprehending, and re-creating real-life experience. The content, timing, number, and structure of interviews will influence the completeness, accuracy, and consistency of children's recall of events. Although at times conflicting, the findings from recent scholarship on children's narrative competence will assist researchers to select the interviewing strategies most likely to yield faithful representations of experience.