An Examination of the Synergy of Age and PTSD on Narrative Coherence in Child Sexual Abuse Testimony

ABSTRACT

In a criminal proceeding, a witness is considered as reliable if he/she can recall in narrative form the events, chronologically ordered, with salient contextual (place and time) details, and essential evaluations for the definition of meanings. This study aimed to confirm the effects of age and PTSD on narrative coherence and to investigate the moderating role of age on the association between PTSD and narrative coherence. Narrative coherence was analyzed in 92 allegations of children (M = 10.3; range: 4–17), who were victims of sexual abuse. Thirty-five children presented the symptoms for a diagnosis of PTSD. Each deposition has been codified through the Narrative Coherence Coding Scheme, a coding scheme based on the three independent dimensions (context, chronology, and theme). Correlation analysis indicated the positive associations between age and context, chronology, and theme; and the negative associations between PTSD symptoms and context, chronology, and theme. Predictive effect of PTSD became less and less significant with increasing age. This study could underline the importance of age and PTSD (and their synergy) in legal testimony of children who have been sexually abused.

KEYWORDS:

• Narrative coherence
• child sexual abuse
• age
• post-traumatic stress disorder
• testimony

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Informed consent statement

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation [institutional and national] and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Sarah Miragoli

Sarah Miragoli, PhD, is Assistant Research in Developmental Psychology at the Faculty of Psychology, Catholic University of Milan, Italy. She is member of the Centre for Research in Developmental and Educational Dynamics and Coordinator of the Trauma Psychology Unit of Research of the Department of Psychology. Research interests: child abuse and maltreatment, traumatic narratives, child testimony, sexualized behaviors, parenting stress.

Elena Camisasca

Elena Camisasca, PhD, is Professor in Developmental Psychology at the Faculty of Psychology, University of Studies eCampus, Italy. She is member of the Centre for Research in Developmental and Educational Dynamics and of the Trauma Unit of the Department of Psychology. Research interests: marital adjustment and marital conflict, parenting stress, attachment, child abuse and maltreatment.