Journal of Pediatric Psychology Advance Access published online on August 28, 2007
Journal of Pediatric Psychology, doi:10.1093/jpepsy/jsm069
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Brief Report: Lie-telling in Children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder
1Department of Pediatrics, University of Alberta, 2Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, McGill University, 3Department of Pediatrics, University of Alberta, and 4Department of Pediatrics, University of Alberta & Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Carmen Rasmussen, Department of Pediatrics, University of Alberta, 137 Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital, 10230-111Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T5G 0B7. E-mail: carmen{at}ualberta.ca.
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Objectives The lie-telling abilities of children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) (aged 4–8 years) were tested using a temptation resistance paradigm. MethodsChildren were told not to peek at a forbidden toy while left alone in a room. Later children were asked if they peeked at the toy as well as follow-up questions to see if they could conceal their peeking behavior and maintain their lie in subsequent verbal statements. Results Approximately 78% of the children peeked at the toy. However, 94% of the FASD children lied about peeking, a rate that is much higher than the non-FASD control group (72%). As age increased, FASD children were better at concealing their lies and maintaining semantic leakage control than non-FASD children. Conclusions This is the first study to specifically test lying in children with FASD and has implications for remediation and understanding secondary disabilities in these children, which will lead to further research in this area.
Key words: fetal alcohol spectrum disorder; lying, problem behaviors..
Received December 11, 2006; revision received July 24, 2007; accepted July 24, 2007