EFFECT OF EMOTIONAL EXPRESSION DURING THE DISCLOSURE OF SEXUAL ABUSE ON THE PERCEIVED CREDIBILITY OF THE CSA VICTIMS

Assessing the credibility of child sexual abuse (CSA) disclosure by experts from many fields working with child abuse cases is complex due to several variables and may even be influenced by many biases. Research confirms that, among other factors, the emotions that a child expresses during the disclosure of sexual abuse are an important factor in assessing the credibility of a child victim (Wessel et al., 2015). The aim of the quasi-experiment was to verify the results of selected research studies (Wessel et al., 2015), which focus on the perceived credibility of the child victim showing various emotional expressions. In particular, the aim was to find out how the following emotional expressions – sad, angry, neutral and positive – of the child during the disclosure of sexual abuse affect the perceived credibility of the child victim. The study was based on the following assumptions: 1) the highest level of credibility of the child victim would be related to the sad and neutral emotional expression and 2) the angry and positive emotional expression would be related to the lower perceived credibility of the child victim. The research sample consisted of 34 psychology students, aged 20 – 25 years (M = 21.83, SD = 1.55). The stimulus material in the form of video recordings of interviews with a potential CSA victim was created by the authors of this study, based on the recommendation of Cromer and Freyd (2007). The interview protocol providing the basis for the creation of video recordings was developed by Wessel et al. (2015). The difference in the perceived credibility of the potential CSA victim was confirmed if the disclosure was accompanied by a positive emotional expression compared to a neutral, sad or angry emotional expression. The results confirmed a significantly lower level of the perceived credibility of the CSA victim when the disclosure was accompanied by a positive emotional expression.