Effect of Using Trained Versus Untrained Adult Respondents in Simulated Practice Interviews About Child Abuse

• NCJ Number: 225305
• Journal: Child Abuse & Neglect Volume: 32 Issue: 11 Dated: November 2008 Pages: 1007-1016
• Author(s): Martine B. Powell; Ronald P. Fisher; Carolyn H. Hughes-Scholes
• Date Published: November 2008
• Length: 10 pages
• Grant Number(s): LP0347170
• Sponsoring Agency: Australian Research Council
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study tested the hypothesis that simulated practice exercises involving trained actors provide superior learning contexts for maintaining the use of open-ended questions compared to untrained fellow participants.

Abstract

Results indicate that simulated practice interviews involving trained postgraduate students were more effective compared to fellow participation in reinforcing interviewers' use of open-ended questions. Although the performance of all participants improved with practice, the beneficial effect of having trained actors play the role of a child was robust. It was evident irrespective of whether performance was measured using the absolute number of proportion of open-ended questions, or the number of open-ended questions asked prior to the first specific question. The benefit of using trained actors was also recognized by the participants, whose self-ratings of their ability to maintain open-ended questions was higher in the actor when compared to the fellow-participant practice conditions. The importance of finding a superior practice effect in the trained-actor condition at the 12-week followup speaks volumes; innovations are successful when participants are tested immediately after training, however, the effect often dissipates when performance is assessed outside the training context, and after a long post-training retention interval. In the current study, the actor-trained participants maintained better performance over time, even though they had not engaged in post-training practice. The differences between the proportions of open-ended questions across the practice sessions were numerically larger at the 12-week followup than the immediate post-test suggesting there may have been greater positive transfer of learning to the new post-criterion interview context among the actor-trained interviewers. Participants were 50 professionals who were employed by a State child protection service in Australia. Tables and references