Gli effetti del trauma e del contesto forense sulla suggestionabilità interrogativa dei minori.

It is important to investigate the variables that may influence immediate and delayed suggestibility that are central to evaluating the competences of children as eyewitnesses (Schooler & Loftus,1986; Ridley & Gudjonsson, 2013). Interrogative Suggestibility (Gudjonsson & Clark, 1986) concerns an eyewitness’s immediate suggestibility in a forensic context and is made up of two components: individual susceptibility to yield to leading questions and the susceptibility to negative feedback given by interviewer (Gudjonsson, 2003; Ridley & Gudjonsson, 2013). Delayed suggestibility regards the misleading post- event information that people insert in their memories (Loftus, Miller & Burns, 1978). The central aim of this thesis is the relationship between suggestibility, trauma-related psychopathology, forensic context and coping strategies in children and adolescents. Two studies have been conducted. In the first study the effect of trauma-related psychopathology measured by TSCC and the role of forensic context (eyewitness vs control group) on immediate and delayed suggestibility measured by GSS2 were analyzed (Vagni et al., 2015; Gudjonsson et al., 2016). A group of suspected victims of sexual abuse (eyewitness) and a group of children not involved in criminal proceedings (control group) were involved. Participants were 165 minors aged between 10 and 15 years. Results showed that post-traumatic stress can predict levels of suggestibility. In addition, it was also noted that the forensic context can affects the tendency to yield to leading questions suggesting that being witnesses can influence the most cognitive component of suggestibility. The aim of the second study was to investigate the relationship between suggestibility, trauma-related psychopathology and coping measured by CISS, in a sample of 86 minors aged from 10 an 14 years. Results showed that the level of immediate suggestibility may be affected by post traumatic stress and by avoidance coping while delayed suggestibility would seem to be moderated by the interaction between dissociation and emotion-oriented strategy.