Doctoral Dissertation Research: Predictors of Children's Lying to Conceal Parental Transgression

保护儿童不受虐待对社会至关重要。然而，虐待儿童的受害者在情感上依附于他们的父母，因此这些年轻的受害者有时会撒谎来掩盖父母的违法行为，甚至是虐待儿童等严重违法行为。 受虐待的儿童可能害怕失去父母并进入寄养家庭，因此为了保护父母而撒谎，尽管谎言增加了儿童留在虐待家庭的机会。 因此，重要的是要确定父母的变量和亲子关系的因素，预测孩子是否会撒谎隐瞒父母的违法行为。 本研究将有助于指导有关儿童说谎行为的社会预测理论。鉴于制造这种谎言的儿童受害者可能会留在有害的环境中，得不到必要的保护，这种新的知识将在法医学上有用。本研究探讨父母教养方式、儿童依恋、父母依恋与儿童说谎投射父母的关系。 这项研究的第二个目标是确定当撒谎的代价不同时，孩子们撒谎的意愿是否会改变。 亲子二人组，孩子年龄从8岁到12岁不等，将被给予充分验证的养育和依恋措施来完成，然后参加一个半脚本的越轨场景。 孩子们将被问及关于违法行为的问题，无论是隐含的高成本还是隐含的低成本，并将对撒谎行为进行编码。 回归模型将确定是否社会变量和成本操纵预测儿童？他在撒谎。

It is vital for society to protect children from abuse. However, child abuse victims are emotionally attached to their parents, and thus these young victims will sometimes lie to conceal parental transgressions, even serious transgressions such as child abuse. Abused children may be afraid of losing their parent and entering foster care, and therefore lie to protect their parents, despite the falsehood increasing the chance of the children staying in an abusive home. It is important, therefore, to identify parenting variables and parent-child relationship factors that predict whether or not children will lie to conceal a parental transgression. This study will help guide theory regarding social predictors of children's lying behavior. T his new knowledge will be of use forensically given the likelihood that child victims who create this type of falsehood would remain in detrimental environments and not receive necessary protection. This research examines whether parenting style, child attachment, and parental attachment relate to children's lying to project their parents. A second goal of the research is to determine whether children's willingness to lie changes when the cost for lying varies. Parent-child dyads, with children ranging from 8- to 12- years of age, will be given well-validated measures of parenting and attachment to complete, and then take part in a semi-scripted transgression scenario. The children will be questioned regarding the transgressions, either with an implied high cost or an implied low cost, and responses will be coded for lying behavior. Regression models will determine whether the social variables and the cost manipulation predict children?s lying.