The Consistency of Childhood MemoriesRetrospective self-reports are a common procedure in psychology. The aim of the present study was to analyze, in a large sample of not institutionalized young adults, the consistency of their reports on several childhood experiences (victimization, fears, learning difficulties), by contrasting them with concurrent reports provided by their parents and/or teachers. Results showed a significant relationship between participants` retrospective self-reports and concurrent information provided by other sources, with the exception of childhood fears. The size of that relationship varied between poor and average. Accordingly, it is recommended that studies using retrospective self-reports provide a measure of the relationship between reports, as well as a size measure, so that the quality of inferences based on these reports could be more easily evaluated.
Keywords:
early memories; autobiographical memory; consistency of memories; self-report