Reactions of adolescents to being interviewed about their sexual assault experiences

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Abstract
Following extensive interviews about their sexual activities and possible sexual assault experiences, 66 moderately delinquent adolescents were asked a series of postinterview questions to determine their levels of comfort/discomfort with various elements of the interview proper. This was done so that the interviewers could provide counseling or other assistance to any youth who reported significant distress following the interview experience. None of the youthful participants required such assistance and surprisingly few of them reported specific distress. On the contrary, a majority of the sample reported feeling substantially or markedly comfortable with most aspects of their interviews and 95% indicated that they would be willing to participate in subsequent, similar interviews. Prevailing concerns regarding the untoward effects of interviewing youths about their sexual histories, including rape experiences, are discussed in terms of these findings, and some methodological considerations concerning the gathering of sexual assault data directly from minors are presented.

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