The Effects of Pre‐Substantive Rapport Building Techniques in Interviews With Children

ABSTRACT

Child interviewers are advised to build rapport with children in early interview phases, but recommendations of how to build rapport vary. This study explores the effectiveness of different rapport‐building techniques. A sample of 178 7‐ to 9‐year‐olds watched a video and were interviewed 2 days later. Interviews contained one of five rapport‐building conditions: prompting about a fun event, asking about the child's interests, playing a game, interviewer self‐disclosure, and a no‐rapport control. Post‐interview, children provided their feelings about the interview. Few differences emerged across techniques, but clear benefits were found for providing rapport‐building using any technique rather than no rapport‐building. Specifically, children with rapport‐building of any kind reported more substantive details about the video, were more talkative, and felt that listening to the interviewer was easier. Findings demonstrate that rapport‐building can support children's innocuous event reports and interview experiences; implications for real‐world interviews involving emotional topics are discussed.