2021 Diversity Award

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.