LICENSURE FOR BEHAVIOR ANALYSTS: THE PATH TO RESPONSIBLE AND COOPERATIVE ACTION

The increase in the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders in the last decade has contributed to growth in the field of applied behavior analysis (ABA). This growth has been spurred by consumer demand for access to this evidence‐based treatment for those with an autism spectrum disorder. Presently, there are at least 34 states that have laws or regulations in place that mandate insurance coverage for autism spectrum disorders. There are also 14 states that have passed licensure or a similar regulatory mechanism for identifying competent providers of ABA. The following paper documents the process of insuring consumer advocacy and protection in the states of Missouri and Wisconsin through the passage of legislation that established licensure for practitioners of ABA. The evolution of this process in both of these states will be detailed as well as a number of lessons learned that should prove to be helpful as additional states move toward licensure for practitioners of ABA. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Majority world successes and European and American failure to contain COVID‐19: Cultural collectivism and global leadership

United Nations and World Health Organization data show a positive correlation, r = .53, p < .0001, N = 189, between COVID‐19 infection rates and the human development index (HDI). Less wealthy, less educated countries with lower life spans were also more successful in maintaining lower fatality rates, r = .46, p < .0001, N = 189 whereas 9 of the top‐10 countries in the world in per capita fatalities due to COVID‐19 were Western societies high in HDI. Similar positive correlations were found between COVID‐19 infection and fatality rates and a smaller sample of 76 countries measured on Schwartz intellectual autonomy (or individualism), and negative correlations of similar magnitude were found for embeddedness (or collectivism). East Asia was a global leader in preventing the spread of COVID‐19 because of a vigilant public concerned for public safety and compliant with public safety measures. African Union leaders coordinated their responses, and bought into a continent‐wide African Medical Supplies Platform that prevented panicked competition for scare supplies. Western global media and scholars have not paid attention to the successes of East Asia, Africa, and the South Pacific in fighting the pandemic. It is worth asking why this should be the case; understand the weaknesses of extreme individualism in fighting a pandemic requiring coordinated and unified public response, and consider the lessons for global scholars from the pandemic for doing research in the future.     

The impact of emotions on shopping behavior during epidemic. What a business can do to protect customers

The study investigated how the perception of in‐shop COVID‐19 contraction influences emotions in decision‐making and how they further effect actions undertaken by consumers to control the situation within a store. Structural equation modeling was used to study the relationship between the risk of in‐store infection, emotions and in‐shop behavior, based on data retrieved from 914 questionnaires. Results showed, that the perceived risk of becoming infected in a store causes an increase in arousal and, at the same time, a decrease in perceived pleasure during shopping. The rise in arousal led to an increase in consumers taking actions to decrease their risk of contagion, while an increase in noticeable pleasure lowered interest of following recommendations for pandemic behavior. The findings imply that through changes regarding in‐store atmosphere, stationary shops can provide consumers with a sense of urgency and awareness of infection risk so that they may do their shopping more efficiently.     

Research in counselling and psychotherapy Post‐COVID‐19

The COVID‐19 pandemic brings to light many areas the field of counselling and psychotherapy may need to address in future research. We outline several issues stemming from or exacerbated by the pandemic and offer suggestions for future research to address the mental health needs of those impacted. Our suggestions focus on five domains: (a) the health and well‐being of helping professionals, (b) the infodemic, (c) discrimination and minority stress, (d) spiritual and existential dynamics in mental health and (e) couple and family stress and resilience. We aim to provide a multi‐systemic perspective of mental health and well‐being in the time of COVID‐19, as well as encourage current and future studies to incorporate these suggestions to advance the health and well‐being of our communities through evidence‐based treatment approaches.     

Career Services in the Post‐COVID‐19 Era: A Paradigm for Career Counseling Unemployed Individuals

The 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID‐19) pandemic has caused unprecedented economic disruption and unemployment worldwide, threatening to become both a financial and a humanitarian crisis. Prolonged labor market recession and an acute rise of unemployment are expected. The main question for career counselors will be how to provide effective career counseling to unemployed people in the post‐COVID‐19 world, where they may face many other unemployment‐related problems. In this article, we suggest application of a holistic intervention model of career counseling for unemployed people that was designed to address the consequences of the acute financial recession in Greece.     

Psychosocial response to COVID‐19 pandemic in India: Helpline counsellors’ experiences and perspectives

The COVID‐19 pandemic presents a threat to physical and psychosocial health of individuals. In lieu of the subsequent lockdown and containment measures, helpline counselling becomes a viable method of accessing psychosocial services during the pandemic. The present paper describes experiences of counsellors working with a special COVID‐19 counselling helpline initiated by iCALL, a national‐level technology‐assisted counselling service of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, India, which aims to address the psychosocial impact of the pandemic and the lockdown. The paper is based on two focus group interviews held with 11 counsellors during the initial two months of the helpline's functioning. Findings of the study highlight the diverse profile of the callers, with individuals belonging to different strata of society and to marginalised communities. The nature of concerns presented by the callers were often a mix of psychological, relational and practical issues. The resultant distress emanated from an interplay of these factors with the relational contexts, their social locations and social structures the individuals were embedded in. This highlighted the need for conceptualising and responding from a psychosocial lens, whereby interventions involved traditional counselling approaches and strategies for addressing determinants of distress by connecting callers to required ground‐level resources. Counsellors’ engagement with this process impacted their professional and personal selves, necessitating the need for structured and continuous training, supervision and support. At a larger level, the counsellors’ narratives asserted the need for adopting a psychosocial paradigm for conceptualising and addressing mental health concerns in India.     

Effects of containment and closure policies on controlling the COVID‐19 pandemic in East Asia

Growing efforts have been made to pool coronavirus data and control measures from countries and regions to compare the effectiveness of government policies. We examine whether these strategies can explain East Asia’s effective control of the COVID‐19 pandemic based on time‐series data with cross‐correlations between the Stringency Index and number of confirmed cases during the early period of outbreaks. We suggest that multidisciplinary empirical research in healthcare and social sciences, personality, and social psychology is needed for a clear understanding of how cultural values, social norms, and individual predispositions interact with policy to affect life‐saving behavioural changes in different societies.     

Mindfulness as a way to cope with COVID‐19‐related stress and anxiety

COVID‐19 brought significant challenges to college students in Spring 2020. Mindfulness‐based interventions might help students cope with COVID‐19‐related stressors in at least three ways: by cultivating attention that is self‐directed rather than reactive to a rapidly changing situation; by teaching the acceptance and regulation of negative thoughts and feelings; and by encouraging individuals to view adverse events non‐judgementally and as opportunities for growth. The purpose of our study was to determine whether Koru Mindfulness (KM), a four‐week, mindfulness‐based group therapy designed for emerging adults, could help students cope with COVID‐19‐related stress and anxiety. Students were assigned to either KM or waitlist at the beginning of the 2020 Spring semester. Assessment of students’ functioning occurred at baseline before the onset of COVID‐19, mid‐semester at the height of the COVID‐19 crisis on campus, and the end of the semester after students had returned home and transitioned to remote learning. After treatment, KM participants reported greater mindfulness and self‐compassion and less stress, anxiety and sleep problems than controls. KM participants also showed superior functioning on performance‐based measures of attention. Most gains were maintained over time. Increased mindfulness mediated the relationship between KM and reductions in stress and anxiety. KM can help students cope with academic and COVID‐19‐related stressors by improving mindfulness.     

From model minority to yellow peril: How threat perceptions and disgust predict anti-Asian prejudice during COVID-19

During the COVID-19 pandemic, hate crimes against Asians sharply increased in the United States. We investigated whether the threat of contracting COVID-19 and specific negative emotions (disgust, anxiety, fear, and anger) regarding COVID-19 predicted anti-Asian prejudice in a 3-wave longitudinal study of non-Asian American adults (N = 486) in the early days of the pandemic in 2020. In all 3 timepoints, participants who believed that they may have already contracted COVID and those who expressed greater disgust reported more anti-Asian attitudes, evaluated Asians as less than human, tolerated anti-Asian prejudice, and blamed Asians for spreading COVID-19. In a well-fitting longitudinal path model, we found longitudinal evidence for these associations, such that the belief that one had already contracted COVID-19 in March 2020 predicted greater disgust one month later, in April 2020, which in turn predicted greater anti-Asian prejudice in May 2020.     

Guns,germs, and public history: A conversation with Jennifer Tucker

In this wide‐ranging conversation, historians David Serlin (UC San Diego) and Jennifer Tucker (Wesleyan University) discuss the role of material culture and visual media in shaping how museums communicate histories of science and technology. Tucker describes recent a public history project focused on 19th‐century histories of firearms and gun regulation in light of contemporary debates about the Second Amendment “right to bear arms.” Serlin and Tucker conclude by speculating about possible curatorial directions for a future public history exhibit focused on the social and cultural impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic during 2020.     

When Being “Essential” Illuminates Disparities: Counseling Clients Affected by COVID‐19

The 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID‐19) has highlighted social disparities in the United States. This article examines how preexisting racial and ethnic disparities, exacerbated by COVID‐19, have negatively affected communities of color that tend to be overrepresented in lower socioeconomic groups, have limited access to health care and education, have an undocumented status, and work in jobs considered “essential.” Counselors are encouraged to use creative strategies to design and facilitate telecounseling and reduced‐ or no‐cost workshops in which attendees can participate safely. Specific cultural considerations, aspects of crisis management, and creative interventions that can be used with clients of color at an appropriate social distance are discussed. Counselors can also instill hope in their clients by promoting sociopolitical development. As the impact of COVID‐19 will be felt for years, it is crucial that counselors be prepared to address the needs of those disproportionately affected.     

Pandemic precarity: A multi-level study of neoliberal precarity and COVID-Related outcomes in the United States

Neoliberalism is the political-economic system that has characterized the United States for the past half century. Structurally, neoliberalism has involved privatization, deregulation, and government divestment from public health systems. Cultural psychologists have begun to outline the ways that neoliberalism is reflected in attitudes, ways of being, and ideologies, such as in the form of heightened individualism, justification of inequality, depoliticization, and precarity. We argue that neoliberal structures and psychologies may contribute to deleterious outcomes in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. We demonstrate that neoliberalism at the US state level (n = 51) is associated with higher COVID mortality and case fatality rates, as well as lower vaccination rates (Study 1). We also demonstrate that individual-level (n = 8280) neoliberal ideology predicts less adaptive beliefs and attitudes such as the belief that the federal response to the pandemic was too fast and belief in COVID-related misinformation (Study 2). We demonstrate using multilevel modeling that state-level neoliberalism predicts individual-level COVID-related attitudes, which is explained in part by heightened neoliberal ideology in more neoliberal states (Study 2). This study contributes to an understanding of the structural and cultural psychological factors that have contributed to the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US.     

Republication : Impact de la pandémie COVID-19 sur le sommeil du personnel soignant

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted the sleep quality of healthcare workers.With differences depending on the questionnaire used, the professional's specialty, and the country studied, about half of caregivers developed sleep disorders during this health crisis.Sleep disorders were associated primarily by symptoms of insomnia, poor sleep quality, reduced total sleep time, and frequent nightmares.Sleep alterations affected both frontline and backline caregivers during the COVID pandemic.Healthcare workers’ sleep studies confirm the importance of spreading the recommendations published by sleep experts.     

Well-being during the coronavirus pandemic: The effect of big five personality and COVID-19 beliefs and behaviors

This study examined the relationship between personality traits, COVID-specific beliefs and behaviors, and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. In July 2020, at the onset of a second major lockdown, Australian adults (n = 1453) completed measures of Big Five personality, COVID beliefs and behaviors (i.e., belief in a rapid recovery, perceived risk, compliance, change in exercise, and change in interpersonal conflict), subjective well-being and COVID-specific well-being. Personality correlates of COVID-specific well-being differed from those with general life satisfaction. The benefits of conscientiousness were elevated whereas the benefits of extraversion and agreeableness were reduced. Neuroticism was related to greater perceived risk from the pandemic, elevated interpersonal conflict during the pandemic, and more pessimistic views about the rate at which society would recover from the pandemic. In contrast, conscientiousness was notably related to greater compliance with directions from public health authorities. While regression models showed that general well-being was largely explained by personality, COVID factors provided incremental prediction, and this was greatest when predicting COVID-specific well-being and lowest for global evaluations of life satisfaction. The observed prediction by beliefs and behaviors on well-being beyond personality, provides potential opportunities for targeted interventions to support the management of future novel stressors.     

“We are also here”—Spiritual Care Practitioners’ Experiences of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study from Poland

Journal of Religion and Health - Although healthcare professionals have become the symbol of risk and sacrifice during the COVID-19 pandemic, spiritual care practitioners (SCP) have also put...     

A nonsequential approach to the study of operant renewal: a reverse translation

ABA renewal is a model of treatment relapse that describes the recurrence of severe problem behavior when behavior learned in one context (e.g., home; A) and treated in a separate context (e.g., clinic; B) reemerges when the original context is reintroduced (A). However, in the typical environment and during the usual course of treatment for severe problem behavior, the target behavior is exposed to the baseline context periodically (e.g., the child returns home after several hours in a clinic setting). Due to the difficulty of studying what effect this may have on treatment relapse during ABA renewal in a strictly applied investigation, we developed a human‐laboratory translation to study renewal in a nonsequential manner. Using undergraduate students as subjects, we directly compared levels of recurrence using the standard ABA renewal procedure and a modified nonsequential ACA procedure, one modeled from the typical course of treatment for problem behavior. Both methods produced renewal at comparable levels, and patterns during nonsequential ACA renewal were similar to those during sequential ABA renewal. We discuss the implications of these findings in the framework of treatment for severe problem behavior.     

Exploring Issues of Generalization and Maintenance in Training Instructional Aides in a Public School Setting

In today’s climate, with the ever-increasing demand for competent behavior analytic services, it is necessary for behavior analysts to work across a variety of settings, including home, school, and community, overseeing instructional aide staff as the frontline providers of applied behavior analysis (ABA) services. It is common practice for ABA practitioners to provide the supervision and training to parents, caregivers, and direct-care staff, who may have limited knowledge and experience within the field of ABA. In 2013, the Behavior Analysis Certification Board (BACB^®) initiated an effort to establish standards for the training of instructional aides and direct-care staff in the delivery of instructional and treatment services based on the principles of ABA. This new standard and credential is known as a Registered Behavior Technician? (RBT^®). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the training process outlined by the BACB, focusing specifically on the generalizability and long-term maintenance of newly acquired skills taught through a competency-based approach, to novel opportunities for implementation. Training was conducted through two methods: in vivo training with clients versus role-play with peers. Both these types of staff training approaches are commonly used instructional practices in the field of ABA.     

A comparison of a modified sequential oral sensory approach to an applied behavior‐analytic approach in the treatment of food selectivity in children with autism spectrum disorder

Treatments of pediatric feeding disorders based on applied behavior analysis (ABA) have the most empirical support in the research literature (Volkert & Piazza, 2012); however, professionals often recommend, and caregivers often use, treatments that have limited empirical support. In the current investigation, we compared a modified sequential oral sensory approach (M‐SOS; Benson, Parke, Gannon, & Muñoz, 2013) to an ABA approach for the treatment of the food selectivity of 6 children with autism. We randomly assigned 3 children to ABA and 3 children to M‐SOS and compared the effects of treatment in a multiple baseline design across novel, healthy target foods. We used a multielement design to assess treatment generalization. Consumption of target foods increased for children who received ABA, but not for children who received M‐SOS. We subsequently implemented ABA with the children for whom M‐SOS was not effective and observed a potential treatment generalization effect during ABA when M‐SOS preceded ABA.     

Integrating Advocacy for Marginalized Children and Families Into Evidence-Based Care During COVID-19: Clinical Vignettes

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has disproportionately impacted the health and socioeconomic outcomes for low-income populations, people of color, and immigrant children and families in the United States. As inequities in resources (i.e., food, internet, housing), health care, and education increased for marginalized families as a result of COVID-19, child-focused clinicians had to broaden their professional scope and implement new advocacy efforts. The current paper uses clinical vignettes taken from a New York State Office of Mental Health–licensed child and adolescent outpatient clinic in the Bronx, New York. The vignettes highlight the social inequities that impacted marginalized children and families during the pandemic, as well as the clinical team’s response through the integration of evidence-base practice and advocacy. Implications for practice with vulnerable populations as the COVID-19 pandemic persists are discussed.     

Certification, accreditation, and quality control in behavior analysis

Implementing quality control measures in the discipline and professional practice of behavior analysis is a challenging, but nevertheless important, step in the evolution of our field. The Association for Behavior Analysis currently seeks to ensure quality in behavior analysis by sponsoring an accreditation program for graduate academic programs and by promoting certification of individual practitioners. The accreditation reviews are conducted by ABA, whereas certification status is awarded by an independent, nonprofit credentialing entity: the Behavior Analyst Certification Board, Inc. Among the challenges that ABA faces as it pursues various quality control measures, particularly in its educational programs, are (a) how extensively should academic programs specify the verbal and nonverbal terminal repertoires in all three branches of behavior analysis (applied, experimental, and conceptual); (b) how extensively should programs that emphasize applied behavior analysis integrate science-based criteria for the evaluation of interventions; and (c) how extensively should programs that emphasize service delivery include training in formal research methodology.