BACKGROUND: Reliable self-report data on child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA) are limited in Armenia, where cultural taboos and disclosure barriers complicate school-based measurement.
OBJECTIVE: This feasibility study aimed (1) to assess the ethical and practical feasibility of administering a self-administered digital school survey including a sensitive CSEA module, and (2) to quantify module-specific consent, examine correlates of opting in, and describe consent-conditioned disclosure rates.
PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: A stratified sample of 336 adolescents (12-17 years) from public schools across four Armenian regions, administered in 21 classroom sessions.
METHODS: Procedure included two-stage assent (parent/child) plus additional on-screen consent before the CSEA module, adapted ICAST-C/JVQ-R2 screeners with follow-ups, hierarchical logistic regression for correlates of consent, and facilitator field notes on implementation and safeguarding.
RESULTS: Additional consent to the sensitive module was obtained from 42.6% of participants (n = 143 of 336). Among students who consented to the sensitive module, girls constituted 70.6% of consenters and boys 26.6%, with a significant difference in the subgroup distribution (Pearson’s χ2(2) = 15.56, p < .001). Consent was associated with knowing a victim and with the breadth of school-based prevention exposure. Among consenters, 19 (13.3%) reported at least one CSEA experience. Field implementation was safe and workable.
CONCLUSIONS: A digital self-administered school survey on CSEA was feasible in Armenian classrooms under enhanced consent and safeguarding procedures. However, patterned module refusal indicates that future representative studies should treat module-specific consent as part of the measurement process and address nonrandom missingness when estimating prevalence.
Psychol Med. 2026 Apr 27;56:e112. doi: 10.1017/S0033291726103444.ABSTRACTBACKGROUND: The positive valence systems (PVS) domain, a key focus of the Research Domains Criteria framework, divides reward-related processes...
