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Updated: Jul 27, 2026
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An Experimental Analysis of Children's Ability to Provide a False Report about a Crime
Published on: May 3, 2016
Does parental coaching affect children's false reports? Comparing verbal markers of deception
Victoria Talwar1, Kyle Hubbard1, Christine Saykaly1
1Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
Behavioral Sciences & the Law
|February 21, 2018
Summary
Parental coaching significantly impacts children's ability to deceive. With extensive coaching, children's fabricated stories lose verbal markers of deception, resembling truthful accounts.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Forensic Psychology
- Child Language Development
Background:
- Children's capacity for deception is influenced by various factors.
- Parental coaching can alter children's narrative accounts.
- Verbal markers of deception are crucial in distinguishing true from false statements.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how parental coaching affects verbal markers of deception in children's narratives.
- To determine if extensive parental coaching obscures the distinction between true and false reports.
- To explore implications for forensic contexts involving coached children.
Main Methods:
- Sixty-five children (4-7 years old) participated in a three-day game-playing scenario.
- Parents coached children to fabricate a second game and provide details.
- Children were interviewed one week later about their experiences.
Main Results:
- Children with minimal parental coaching exhibited distinct verbal markers of deception in false narratives.
- Fabricated reports from children with extensive parental coaching showed similarities to truthful reports.
- Verbal markers analyzed included cognitive processes, temporal information, and self-references.
Conclusions:
- Extensive parental coaching can diminish the detectability of deception in children's narratives.
- The findings highlight challenges in forensic evaluations of children who may have been coached.
- Understanding the impact of coaching is vital for accurate child witness testimony.
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