Measuring interrogative suggestibility in children: Reliability and validity of the Bonn Test of Statement Suggestibility

The Bonn Test of Statement Suggestibility (BTSS) has been proposed as a tool for measuring individual differences in interrogative suggestibility in 4 to 10 year old children. The current study sought to evaluate the psychometric properties of a Dutch version of the BTSS (BTSS-NL) in a sample of 38 primary school children. Test-retest stability and internal consistency of the two subscales of the BTSS-NL (i.e., the Yield and Shift scale) proved to be sufficient. Indirect support for the validity of the BTSS-NL was found in that younger children had higher BTSS-NL scores than older children. Also, children who were judged by their reacher as highly suggestible displayed higher scores on the Yield scale of the BTSS-NL than children who were not particularly suggestible according to their teacher. While these results indicate that the BTSS-NL is a valuable research instrument for measuring individual differences in children's suggestibility, more large scale studies are needed to determine whether the BTSS-NL can be used as a forensic tool.