Abstract:

The IFES has started a research project on public and parental resistance to the interviewing of children, examine for a series of topics which arguments are used against interviews with children, where the appropriate age limit to treating the topic in an interview situation is perceived and which demands are posed on the interview situation (child alone, child with mother/father/ both parents; verbal questioning, tests, simulation of real-life-situations, play situations). The research shows that there is no general and pervasive negative attitude against the interviewing of children. Only about 3 percent of the population in Austria refuse children's interviews by principle and without regard on topic and age of the child.