Exploring Mental Health and Illness in the UK Sports Coaching Workforce.

There is growing international concern about the mental health of those who work in sport, including coaches. However, we currently know little about the prevalence of mental illness and the experience of mental health among coaches, and their perceptions and use of workplace mental health support services. Little is also known about coaches' disclosure of mental illness to, and seeking help from, work colleagues. We explore these issues using data from 202 coaches who responded to the first United Kingdom survey of mental health in the sport and physical activity workforce. In total, 55% of coaches reported having ever experienced a mental illness, and 44% currently did, with coaches in grassroots/community settings being most likely to experience mental illness. Depression and anxiety were the most commonly reported conditions and many coaches preferred to access mental health support outside of the organisation for whom they worked or volunteered, with decisions to seek help from others in the workplace being shaped by complex organisational and personal considerations. The findings suggest there is an important public health challenge which needs to be met among coaches, so that we can better address a question of fundamental importance: 'who is looking after the people looking after the people'?

Improving intoxicated witness recall with the Enhanced Cognitive Interview.

RATIONALE: Witnesses and victims typically provide the central leads in police investigations, yet statistics from past research indicates in many instances these individuals are intoxicated. OBJECTIVES: To date, however, no research has looked at how best to interview such witnesses to maximise the amount of accurate information they recall. METHODS: In the present research, whilst on a night out, participants watched a videoed theft whilst either sober or moderately (MBAC = 0.05%) or severely (MBAC = 0.14%) intoxicated. A week later, in a different location, participants were interviewed using either the Enhanced Cognitive (ECI) or Structured Interview. RESULTS: The ECI was found to improve the recall accuracy and completeness of witness accounts across all three drinking conditions. However, no significant interaction was indicated between alcohol and interview condition. CONCLUSIONS: The study findings are discussed in terms of their real-world value in aiding police officers to elicit as complete and as accurate an account as possible from intoxicated witnesses.

Mock Juror Perceptions of Child Witnesses on the Autism Spectrum: The Impact of Providing Diagnostic Labels and Information About Autism.

Research suggests that autistic children can provide accurate and forensically useful eyewitness evidence. However, members of a jury also rely on non-verbal behaviours when judging the credibility of a witness, and this could determine the verdict of a case. We presented mock jurors with videos (from an experimental study) of one of two child witnesses on the autism spectrum being interviewed about a mock minor crime. Results demonstrated that providing jurors with generic information about autism and/or informing them of the child's diagnostic label differentially affected credibility ratings, but not for both children. Implications for how to present information about child witnesses with autism to a jury-highlighting the need for approaches tailored to individual children-are discussed.

The narrative coherence of witness transcripts in children on the autism spectrum.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Autistic children often recall fewer details about witnessed events than typically developing children (of comparable age and ability), although the information they recall is generally no less accurate. Previous research has not examined the narrative coherence of such accounts, despite higher quality narratives potentially being perceived more favourably by criminal justice professionals and juries. This study compared the narrative coherence of witness transcripts produced by autistic and typically developing (TD) children (ages 6-11 years, IQs 70+). METHODS AND PROCEDURES: Secondary analysis was carried out on interview transcripts from a subset of 104 participants (autism = 52, TD = 52) who had taken part in a larger study of eyewitness skills in autistic and TD children. Groups were matched on chronological age, IQ and receptive language ability. Coding frameworks were adopted from existing narrative research, featuring elements of 'story grammar'. OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: Whilst fewer event details were reported by autistic children, there were no group differences in narrative coherence (number and diversity of 'story grammar' elements used), narrative length or semantic diversity. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: These findings suggest that the narrative coherence of autistic children's witness accounts is equivalent to TD peers of comparable age and ability.

Supporting child witnesses during identification lineups: Exploring the effectiveness of registered intermediaries.

Performance at identification lineup was assessed in eighty-five 6- to 11-year-old typically developing children. Children viewed a live staged event involving 2 male actors, and were asked to identify the perpetrators from 2 separate lineups (one perpetrator-present lineup and one perpetrator-absent lineup). Half the children took part in lineups adapted by a registered intermediary (an impartial, trained professional who facilitates understanding and communication between vulnerable witnesses and members of the justice system), and half took part in "best-practice" lineups, according to the current guidance for eyewitness identification in England and Wales. Children receiving assistance from a registered intermediary (relative to children who received best-practice lineups) were more accurate in their identifications for perpetrator-present lineups, and there was some evidence that they were also more accurate for perpetrator-absent lineups. This provides the first empirical evidence for the effectiveness of registered intermediary support during identification lineups.

Verbal, Visual, and Intermediary Support for Child Witnesses with Autism During Investigative Interviews.

Three promising investigative interview interventions were assessed in 270 children (age 6-11 years): 71 with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and 199 who were typically developing (TD). Children received 'Verbal Labels', 'Sketch Reinstatement of Context' or 'Registered Intermediary' interviews designed to improve interview performance without decreasing accuracy. Children with ASD showed no increases in the number of correct details recalled for any of the three interview types (compared to a Best-Practice police interview), whereas TD children showed significant improvements in the Registered Intermediary and Verbal Labels interviews. Findings suggested that children with ASD can perform as well as TD children in certain types of investigative interviews, but some expected benefits (e.g., of Registered Intermediaries) were not apparent in this study.

Crime Victims' Demographics Inconsistently Relate to Self-Reported Vulnerability.

Previous research has found a discrepancy between the number of individuals who self-report as being vulnerable and official prevalence estimations. Both this discrepancy and victims' views about their vulnerability need addressing in order to identify further training needs for criminal justice system agencies and to that ensure victims receive the appropriate support. Using data from the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) User Satisfaction Survey (USS) (n = 47,560), the present study explores 1) crime victims' self-reported vulnerability and its association with demographics; 2) police identification of vulnerability; and 3) whether the needs of vulnerable victims are catered for. The results indicate that 38% of the sample self-identified as being vulnerable, a considerably higher percentage than estimated in previous literature. Although associations have been found between vulnerability and demographics, these have been negligible or have had weak effect sizes. The findings are discussed in relation to the current definition of a vulnerable victim, and the role of personal circumstances in self-identification are highlighted.

Mental time travel ability and the Mental Reinstatement of Context for crime witnesses.

Mental time travel ability marks how well the phenomenological aspects of events are mentally re-experienced during recall. The Cognitive Interview (CI) elicits eyewitness information. One of its techniques, Mental Reinstatement of Context (MRC), asks eyewitnesses to reinstate the incident's context mentally before recall. Fifty-six participants watched a simulated crime video. Self-report measures were then taken to estimate general mental time travel ability. Participants were questioned subsequently about the video. Eyewitness performance under MRC was compared with the CI's Report Everything (RE) technique, wherein eyewitnesses recall everything they can but with no invitation to mentally reinstate the context. There was no effect of interview condition on accuracy of recall; however, general mental time travel ability was positively associated with the amount of correct and incorrect information produced under MRC, but not RE, conditions. This is the first empirical demonstration that MRC instructions engage the mental time travel capacities they purport to.

Legal professionals and witness statements from people with a suspected mental health diagnosis.

Individuals with mental health problems are considered to be part of a group labeled 'vulnerable' in forensic psychology literature and the legal system more generally. In producing witness statements, there are numerous guidelines in the UK, designed to facilitate the production of reliable and valid accounts by those deemed to be vulnerable witnesses. And yet, it is not entirely clear how mental health impacts on reliability and validity within the judicial system, partly due to the diversity of those who present with mental health difficulties. In this paper, we set out to explore how legal professionals operating in the UK understand the impact of mental distress on the practical production of witness testimonies. Twenty legal professionals, including police officers, judges, magistrates and detectives were involved in a semi-structured interview to examine their knowledge and experience of working with mental health problems, and how they approached and worked with this group. A thematic analysis was conducted on the data and specific themes relevant to the overall research question are presented. These include a) dilemmas and deficiencies in knowledge of mental health, b) the abandonment of diagnosis and c) barriers to knowledge: time restrictions, silence, professional identity and fear. Finally, we explore some of the implications of these barriers, with regard to professional practice.

When help becomes hindrance: unexpected errors of omission and commission in eyewitness memory resulting from change temporal order at retrieval?

An experimental mock eyewitness study is reported that compared Free and reverse order recall of an empirically informed scripted crime event. Proponents of reverse order recall suggest it facilitates recovery of script incidental information and increases the total amount of information recalled. However, compared with free recall it was found to impair overall retrieval performance, resulting in fewer script consistent events, reduced recall of correct information, increased confabulations, and lowered accuracy proportional to items retrieved. The disruptive effects of reverse order are interpreted as providing evidence for the role of temporal clustering in guiding retrieval. Impairment induced by reverse order continued to influence retrieval negatively even during a secondary free recall phase suggesting it encourages confabulations. The results indicate that the technique should be used with caution, and only when retrieval by free recall has been exhausted.