Selected for the 2021 Diversity Award is Yiyi Wang, University of Toronto (she was nominated by Jonathan Tarbox)

I am a multilingual international PhD student and I am passionately pursuing my program of research, which has combined applied behavior analysis (ABA) and Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT), inside a contextual behavioral framework, for expanding behavioral science into more diverse populations that have traditionally been under-addressed by contextual behavioral science research. Children with autism from multicultural backgrounds are often diagnosed at a later age compared to white and English-speaking children. As a result, parents with diverse cultural backgrounds face more challenges given the lack of behavior therapists who understand or speak their native languages in the United States. Despite substantial research validating ABA approaches to supporting individuals with autism, little attention is paid to the role of cultural diversity and multilingualism in treatment. To address this gap in the field of ABA, I led the team that published the article “Multilingual Diversity in the Field of Applied Behavior Analysis and Autism: A Brief Review and Discussion of Future Directions” in the journal, Behavior Analysis in Practice. In this article, we discussed the ways in which cultural diversity, equity, and multilingualism might be better addressed within the field of ABA. Instead of recommending families receive service in English only (as is still common), we recommended that clinicians ask families about their values and cultural preferences. We recommended that a child’s treatment plan be based on culturally appropriate goals, positive reinforcers, first language, and otherwise be customized to the family’s culture. Additionally, we proposed future directions to promote diversity in ABA, including recruiting more international students in graduate programs, enhancing diversity curricula, and initiatives by professional associations. The paper was presented and won the poster competition at the California Association for Behavior Analysis Annual Convention.

In addition to autism, I continue to pursue the importance of diversity and equity in other populations and domains. Under the supervision of Dr. Jonathan Tarbox, I completed my master’s thesis, “The Effects of Multilingual Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT) on Exercise in Bilingual University Students.” I used a multiple baseline to evaluate the effects of a multilingual ACT program for bilingual international college students who valued increasing their physical activity. The study demonstrated that ACT was effective when delivered in a combination of both English and Chinese in helping all participants to substantially increase their daily steps taken, frequency of gym visits, and work out duration. No previous research, of which we are aware, evaluated bilingual ACT for increasing physical activity in a culturally diverse population. This paper has been presented at several conferences and was published in the Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science in August 2020.

In sum, using contextual behavioral science to promote diversity and equity in behavioral research is my passion and I believe this award will help me share my successful programs of research with more individuals on how to combine applied behavior analysis and ACT, inside a contextual behavioral framework, for more fully addressing topics of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
 

Selected for the 2022 Diversity Award is Brian Middleton, Bearded Behaviorist (he was nominated by Summer Mingo & Clinton Fuller)

In the last year I have been working to further awareness of and inclusion of neurodivergent populations in human services, most specifically ABA. I have been fighting for disability rights, for trauma-informed and neurodivergent affirming practices, and disseminating ACT. 

Brian has generously donated his free conference registration to a DEI scholarship applicant to be selected by the ACBS Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee.

Selected for the 2023 Diversity Award is Khamisi Musanje (he was nominated by Rosco Kasujja)

While ACT and other related mindfulness and acceptance based therapies have enjoyed a great breakthrough in the developed world, the developing world has lagged behind on this experience. An automatic copy and paste approach would quicken the spread of such therapies in the developing contexts (where they are needed most), however, the realization that contexts affect the effectiveness of psychotherapy puts a caution on such a simplistic approach. Besides, there is strong evidence that most psychotherapies coming from the developed West, fall short of expectations when used in completely different settings.

My colleagues and I, out of passion for extending the use of ACT to a developing context (Uganda), embarked on a journey to culturally translate ACT materials for use with adolescents living with HIV in Uganda. We engaged local mental health experts and others stakeholders involved in HIV care services to produce materials with cultural relevance. We further tested acceptability of the adapted materials among adolescents and health care providers in Uganda (materials were perceived to be acceptable, relevant and usable). We are currently evaluating effectiveness of the adapted materials in supporting the mental health of adolescents in a low resource context (Uganda) through a randomized trial.

I have disseminated the adaptation process and results on social validity of the material in two scientific publications; PLOS Global health journal; https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0001605, and the Journal of Contextual Behavioral Sciences; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcbs.2023.07.002. I have presented the work in the 16th and 17th Joint Annual Scientific and Health Conferences-JASHC 2022 and 2023 organized in Uganda and presented at the Association of Contextual Behavioral Scientists world conference in Nicosia- Cyprus. Besides, I have held stakeholder feedback workshops with both healthcare providers and adolescents and also held one online meeting with the Ministry of Health in Uganda to kick start conversations regarding inclusion of mindfulness and acceptance strategies into standard of care services offered to adolescents living with HIV in Uganda.