Improving Questioning Skills and Use of Supportive Statements in Simulated Child Sexual Abuse Interviews

Abstract

We examined the simultaneous training of questioning skills and supportive statements through simulated child sexual abuse (CSA) interviews paired with feedback. Eighty inexperienced participants were divided into four groups: no feedback, feedback on question types and case outcomes, feedback on supportive statements, and the combination of all feedback types. Each participant conducted four online simulated CSA interviews with child avatars. Results showed that combined feedback improved both questioning skills and supportive statements, demonstrating the potential for simultaneous multi-skill training. The proportion of recommended questions increased by 20%–30% on average, while supportive statements increased two- to four-fold. However, combined training showed slightly lower improvements compared with single-skill training suggesting the presence of a trade-off. These findings highlight the importance of personalized feedback and suggest that initial separate training for single skills or additional interventions may enhance multi-skill training effectiveness, contributing to more effective interviewer training programs.