EFFECTS OF TEACHING ACCEPTANCE AND COMMITMENT THERAPY-BASED STRATEGIES ON IMPROVING ACADEMIC ENGAGEMENT AND PARTICIPATION FOR STUDENTS IN AN APPLIED BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS MASTER’S PROGRAM

The field of applied behavior analysis (ABA) comes with rigorous work expectations and demands. ABA practitioners who are also graduate students must balance the extensive workload of educational and work expectations. Given these demands, graduate students providing ABA services to clients with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) need strategies to maintain their own positive mental health in order to maintain high academic achievement and to prevent burnout. Using a multiple baseline design this study examined whether teaching 6 graduate students enrolled in an ABA master's program who were also working as part-time practitioners providing ABA services to individuals with ASD to use Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)-based strategies impacted their engagement and active participation during an online synchronous class. Changes in psychological flexibility, stress, and values-behavior were also examined. Although there was no functional relation between the training on using ACT-based strategies and the dependent variables, the lack of effects is likely because the participants enrolled in the study did not have baseline levels that indicated a need for intervention. Additionally, it is hypothesized that competing factors and stressors related to the COVID-19 pandemic likely outweighed the impact of the training to use the ACT-based strategies. The results are discussed more in as well as implications for future research. Keywords: graduate students, behavior technician, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, psychological flexibility, stress, value driven behavior.