Mother–child conversations and coping strategies as antecedents of children’s recall accuracy

Emotion-oriented conversations predicted higher recall accuracy (including more accurate free recall and less suggestibility) directly and indirectly through more use of positive coping strategies and less use of negative coping strategies. These results suggest that it is critical to consider the complex impacts of individual differences when studying children's recall accuracy regarding stressful past events, especially in terms of interviewing child witnesses.