Educators continue to experience stress and burnout, both of which have been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and there continues to be a need to develop interventions that support not only educators’ well-being, but a climate within school buildings that fosters psychological well-being for students and school staff alike. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is one promising approach to interventions for both educator and student psychological well-being. The present study sought to evaluate the effect of a low-dosage, online, and remotely delivered ACT intervention for educators on self-reported burnout, psychological flexibility, ACT knowledge, and frequency of use of ACT-consistent language while teaching in an alternative educational setting. The ACT-based intervention targeted the development of educator psychological flexibility, but the analysis provided an evaluation of non-targeted participants’ use of ACT-consistent language in the classroom, as well. Results suggest an overall improvement in participants’ self-reported burnout and psychological flexibility, an increase in participants’ ACT knowledge following each phase of the study, and an increase in the frequency of ACT-consistent language for all participants following the onset of a feedback component. We discuss potential implications of practical ACT-based interventions for educators in an applied setting and related increases in ACT-consistent verbal stimuli within the classroom setting.

Behavior analytic interventions for people with disabilities often rely on implementation by novice caregivers and staff. However, behavior intervention documents are ineffective at evoking the level of performance needed for behavior change, and intensive training is often needed (Dogan et al., 2017; Ward-Horner & Sturmey, 2012). The cost and time requirements of intensive training may not be viable options for some clients, leading to nonadherence or attrition (Raulston et al., 2019). In addition, others may feel that prescribed interventions are not appropriate or will not work (Moore & Symons, 2011). These barriers may reflect a cultural mismatch (Rathod et al., 2018). One potential way to increase efficacy of intervention materials is to improve the cultural sensitivity and comprehensibility of these documents. Although the body of research on cultural adaptation of behavioral interventions is becoming more robust, adaptation of behavior intervention documents as a means to create effective behavior change when cultural and linguistic diversity are factors, is an area of behavior analytic practice that is not well researched and there remains a need for cultural humility. Because diversity can include expansive differences between individuals, such as race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, religion, gender and sexuality; understanding and adapting to each of these areas may be best done through separate reviews. It is the intent of this article to focus on ethnic diversity in the United States as a starting point and frame of reference for cultural adaptation. This tutorial includes tips learned from health communication research to give step-by-step guidance on creating comprehensible, culturally adapted intervention plans through the example of training for parents of autistic children.

Previous studies have shown that variations of experimental functional analysis (FA) can be used effectively as part of the functional behavioral assessment process in educational settings. The purpose of the current study was to review the literature pertaining to FA of problem behavior in schools focusing on method, topographies, and results. Results of this review showed that analog functional analysis (AFA) are conducted most often in school settings; but recent trends show that use of adapted formats (e.g., trial-based FA and brief FA) are increasing. Analysis of FA results identified most frequent topographies and maintaining variables of problem behavior in the reviewed studies. Trends in teacher-implemented FA are discussed, as well as discrepancies surrounding the terminology of FA in the literature base. Implications for further research, such as social validity of FA in public schools and use of multiple targeted topographies within school-based FA are presented.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals with neurodevelopmental disabilities (NDD) are engaging more with others in virtual group formats for social, educational, and professional reasons. This study extends prior research by evaluating the efficacy of common behavioral interventions, including behavioral skills training, provided via group video conferencing to teach skills that are important when interacting with others in a virtual format. Four adults with NDD were taught to use their cameras and microphones appropriately and to make encouraging statements to one another while discussing current events and social skills-based lessons via Zoom™. Two of the three skills increased and maintained for all participants even after the experimenter faded the contingencies for appropriate responding. The third skill maintained after the experimenter arranged for the response to produce natural consequences. Tests for generalization across group leads and activities yielded promising results. Findings suggest that adults with NDD benefit from group-based telehealth services to improve skills needed to interact successfully with others in a virtual format.

Due to the pandemic brought on by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), consumers of applied behavior-analytic interventions may be experiencing disrupted access to services. In response to the need for services, behavior analysts and therapists may find themselves treading unchartered waters as they use telehealth to provide direct intervention to consumers. Direct service provision via telehealth extends beyond the bounds of existing telehealth research, which primarily focuses on caregiver training and consultation. In the transition to telehealth, behavior analysts can consider how to adapt an existing evidence base of behavior-analytic strategies from a face-to-face format to intervention via a teleconferencing platform (i.e., Zoom). In this tutorial, we provide practice recommendations, task analyses, and a curated list of Zoom walk-throughs to help behavior analysts construct conceptually systematic learning opportunities in their direct telehealth services. Leveraging teleconferencing features to provide behavior-analytic intervention directly to consumers could spur future research to support these need-inspired practices and guide telehealth applications during and beyond the current pandemic.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40617-020-00529-5.

Women have played, and continue to play, an important role in behavior analysis. Their participation as authors of journal articles and as journal editors was first quantified in 1983 and has been the topic of several subsequent articles. Other articles have addressed other aspects of women's participation in the discipline, but no review of articles concerned with women in behavior analysis has appeared. The present review (a) describes articles that quantified the participation of women, (b) presents a novel data set providing an updated overview of women's participation in eight behavior-analytic journals, (c) reviews suggestions from prominent female behavior analysts, (d) discusses other topics that pertain to the participation of women, (e) presents data describing the gender of authors who have written about women in behavior analysis, and (f) makes suggestions for future research. Women's participation in behavior analysis has increased greatly over the past half-century. The articles we review clearly document that increase and may have contributed to it, although that contribution is speculative.

Contingency-based procedures have been found to be effective in facilitating delays to reinforcement for escape-maintained behavior within research and clinical contexts. Few studies have evaluated the use of these procedures for multiply maintained problem behavior. A contingency-based procedure was conducted with two participants to evaluate the effectiveness this procedure had on increasing tolerance to schedule thinning for problem behavior that was hypothesized to be multiply controlled. Results suggested that the procedure was effective at facilitating tolerance for a delay for both participants after switching to a lower effort task.

Sparked by recent events, discussions of systemic racism and racial inequalities have been pushed to the foreground of our global society, leading to what is being called the largest modern-day civil rights movement (Buchanan et al., 2020). In the past, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) activists and scholars, among others, have evaluated and critiqued systems and organizations within our society. Nonetheless, it was not until recently that this movement was truly noticed by a greater number of people, some of whom are now further assessing how BIPOC are viewed and treated within their organization and by society as a whole (Worland, 2020). This is not only due to the increase in video evidence (e.g., released body cam footage, social media postings), but also the previous administration’s rhetoric and political agenda (Hubler & Bosman, 2021). Police departments, educational institutions, and large companies have, for decades, been under scrutiny for their systems and practices that promote racism, inequality, and inequity. The field of behavior analysis, with its Eurocentric roots and observed lack of diversity, equity, and inclusion, is not exempt from such evaluations. It is time that we take a look in the mirror and evaluate our own professional, research, educational, and clinical practices, and work towards creating a new, more inclusive, field of behavior analysis that promotes anti-racism and cultural humility.

Acceptance describes mediating behaviors in which an individual reduces escape and avoidance behaviors in response to unwanted private events while also encouraging increased appetitive control. Given the recent resurgence of interest in acceptance and commitment therapy/training (ACT) in applied behavior analysis (ABA), a review of this core treatment process is warranted. Acceptance has strong empirical support within the psychological and contextual behavioral science literatures, with treatment outcome studies, self-report measures research, and behavioral laboratory tasks all supporting the process. A review of select publications in behavior-analytic journals found that acceptance also has preliminary evidence of effectiveness across a variety of populations and problem behaviors in ABA. An application of acceptance in an ABA context is discussed, and recommendations for a more functional approach to acceptance and other ACT processes are offered. Acceptance interventions fall within the scope of practice of ABA in several contexts and are of relevance to mainstream ABA practitioners.

One of the key challenges facing instructors of undergraduate introduction to behavior analysis courses is helping students learn to identify the environmental variables that control behavior. Goldiamond frequently employed exploratory and targeted logs to help his clients understand the environmental controlling variables that supported their behavior. We describe a preliminary analysis of the use of adaptations of Goldiamond's exploratory logs in the context of a behavior change project incorporated in several undergraduate introductory behavior analysis courses across three semesters. Three "levels" of exploratory logs were created in which students were asked to record an increasing number of the components of the three-term contingency. Students were also asked to answer the question, "why did this behavior occur" for each behavior reported. In the first semester, students received feedback on their exploratory logs through an online course management system and in the subsequent two semesters students received feedback on their exploratory logs during class periods. Each level of the students' exploratory logs was scored according to the type of explanation (e.g., explanatory fiction, behavioral) students provided for the behavior. The results show that the combination of the behavior change project and in-class feedback promoted more behavioral explanations for the behaviors recorded than the combination of the behavior change project and feedback provided through the online, course management system.