1. 0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
Kindergarten 3rd Grade 5th Grade
Pre Test
Post Test
Jasmine Romero, Lorinda B. Camparo, Ingrid Morales, Kimberly Hurtado, Katherine Normand, & Judith Wagner
Whittier College; Whittier, CA
Introduction
Participants and Procedures
Participants
Procedures
Study 1:
1. Randomly assigned law students to “preparation “ or “education”
condition;
2. Participants reported familiarity with court-readiness programs for
children in the judicial system;
3. Participants read standardized description of court schools as either a
“preparation” or “education” program;
4. Participants rated their own knowledge/attitudes about court schools on
5-point Likert scale (1 = very negative to 5 = very positive).
Study 2:
1. Participants responded verbally to 50-item test on legal terms and legal
processes;
2. Small groups of 3-5 students received the educational component of the
Kids’Court School (KCS) program;
3. Approximately 2 to 3 weeks following instruction, participants
responded verbally to same 50-item questionnaire to examine
maintenance of information gained from the lesson;
4. Participants’ responses coded as IDK, inaccurate, and accurate (0 to 5).
Hypotheses
Results
Even very young children are often an important source of information in
legal proceedings. However, many children do not fully understand legal
vocabulary (Saywtiz et al., 1990) or how the legal system works (Block et
al., 2010). It is also not unusual for children to become anxious due to the
pressure they face in providing the legal system with important
information; they may have many misconceptions about the legal system,
which tends to increase their fear of participating in legal proceedings.
Nathanson & Saywitz (2015) addressed the contrast between the
expectations and competencies of child witnesses by examining the
effectiveness of Kids’ Court School (KCS), a “pretrial preparation
program,” that is intended to educate and reduce anxiety in children
before they appear in court. The study demonstrated the effectiveness of
the KCS in reducing anxiety, but it did not examine the educational
component of the program. Although “court schools” are gaining in
popularity, very little research exists on the efficacy of such programs and
even less is known about legal professionals’ knowledge and opinions
about these programs. Study 1 examined legal professionals’ knowledge
and attitudes about court schools, and perceptions of the term “court-
preparation” versus “court-education” using rating scales. Study 2
examined children’s legal knowledge before and after receiving the
educational component of Kids’Court School.
Study 1 - Hypothesis: Law professionals will express more positive opinions
about “Court Education Programs” than “Court Preparation Programs.”
Study 1 Study 2
Law students from Southern
California law school (N=44)
Kindergarten: n = 26
3rd grade: n = 24
5th grade: n = 23
Study 2 – Hypothesis 1: The KCS lesson will increase children’s correct
responses and decrease their incorrect and I don’t know (IDK) responses.
Study 2 – Hypothesis 2: Kindergarteners will give fewer correct and more
incorrect and IDK responses than 3rd graders, who will give fewer correct and
more incorrect and IDK responses than 5th graders.
Study 2 – Hypothesis 3: Overall, the KCS lesson will have a greater effect for
3rd and 5th graders than Kindergarteners.
Overall Participant Familiarity with Court-Readiness
Programs (%)
Unfamiliar: 86% Familiar: 24%
Education- and Preparation-Group Means and Standard
Deviations for Survey Questions
Educ.
M (SD)
Prep.
M (SD)
t(42) Cohen’s d
Positive attitudes about
program effectiveness
4.27 (0.70) 3.89 (0.98) -1.51* 0.44
Likelihood of referring
child client to court-school
program
4.41 (0.80) 4.02 (1.05) -1.37** 0.42
*p = .07; **p = .09
Main Effects of KCS Educational Intervention
Pre
M (SD)
Post
M (SD)
F(1,70)
Partial Eta
Squared
Percent Inaccurate 0.26 (0.19) 0.16 (0.14) 34.88* .33
Percent Accurate 0.29 (0.18) 0.39 (0.20) 88.36* .59
Degree of Accuracy** 0.63 (0.41) 1.30 (0.72) 662.45* .90
*p < .001; **Degree of accuracy: 0 = wrong/IDK to 4 = completely accurate
Discussion
Findings from both studies generally supported our hypotheses. Study 1 results
indicated that describing court schools as education programs was perceived
marginally more positively by law-school students than describing them as
preparation programs. Overall, the vast majority of the participants were unfamiliar
with court schools. However, those who read about a program as a court education
program had marginally more positive attitudes about the program’s effectiveness, and
were marginally more likely to say they would refer a child client to a court school
program than were those who read about it as a preparation program. Future research
should focus on replicating these findings with a larger and more diverse sample as
well as exploring differences between those who are familiar versus those who are
unfamiliar with court school programs.
Study 2 examined the efficacy of the educational component of a well-established
court-school curriculum, Kids’Court School (KCS, Nathanson & Saywitz, 2011), with
Kindergarteners, 3rd graders, and 5th graders. The results generally supported all
hypotheses, suggesting that the lesson plan was successful for all grades in increasing
the number of correct responses and the degree to which the responses were correct,
while decreasing the number of incorrect responses. Consistent with predictions and
previous research, Kindergarteners exhibited lower levels of pre-instruction
knowledge (<10% accurate) compared to 3rd graders (34%) and 5th graders (47%).
Although the educational component did not decrease the percent of IDK responses
for any grade level, this can be a positive finding considering an IDK response is
preferable to a guess or not admitting lack of knowledge. Future research should
examine the effect of the educational component on specific areas of children’s court
knowledge (e.g., people in the court, legal terms, legal processes, and witness
involvement). Additionally, future research should explore the length of time
information gained from the lesson is maintained by different age groups.
Results (Study 2 continued)
Figure 1. K, 3rd, 5th graders’ accuracy on legal terms test pre/post educ. intervention.
Main effect of Grade: F(2,70) = 108.75; p < .001; Partial Eta Squared = 0.76.
Grade X Pre/Post Interaction: F(2,70) = 61.56; p < .001; Partial Eta Squared = 0.64.
Study 1
Study 2
Presented at the Convention for the Western Psychological Association; April, 2016: Long Beach, CA
“A Minor is Someone Who Digs”: Readying Children with Court School
Pretest
Post-test