Conclusions
Taken together, the current study provides further evidence that Avatar Training with feedback is an effective approach for CSA interview training across cultural contexts. Feedback significantly increases the usage of open-ended questions and decreases the usage of close-ended questions, which in turn improves the accuracy of information gathered from the child avatars. Although we fail to observe any positive effects of hypothesis-testing in improving interviewing quality, we caution against the interpretation that hypothesis-testing lacks efficacy as interview quality was only measured in terms of question types. Moreover, we provided direct evidence that children’s perceived reliability depends on interviewers’ questioning style and encouraged researchers to further explore the interviewer’s perceptions and judgments about their interview process.