Telling it how it was: A comparative analysis of children's evidential andnon-evidential narrative accounts

While a number of weaknesses have been identified in children's eyewitness, or evidential narrative accounts (e.g., Aldridge & Wood, 1998; Richardson, 1993; Walker & Warren, 1995), analyses of children's non-evidential narrat ives indicate that children as young as two years can be competent narrator s (e.g., Fivush, Gray & Fromhoff, 1987). A variety of factors might contrib ute to the child's reported poorer performance in the evidential setting. F or example, the interview topic land associated consequences) is likely to be more stressful, the child is less likely to be familiar with the intervi ew setting and the interviewer, and the child is less likely to be prompted for an answer in the evidential setting. This study examines young children's narrative performance in an evidential and in a non-evidential (experimental) setting to investigate which factor s might contribute to differences in narrative performance. Findings sugges t that, while children's narrative competence develops with age, situationa l factors largely account for the differences in performance in children's evidential and non-evidential narratives. However, we do suggest that inter viewers could do more to facilitate, in a non-leading fashion, children's e vidential narratives. More specifically, we propose that children should be offered a 'second chance' to tell their story before the interviewer moves on to specific questioning.