Supervision Behaviors of Board-Certified Behavior Analysts with Precertification Candidates

With the rapid increase in the rate of board-certified behavior analysts (BCBAs), there has been a need to evaluate the state of precertification supervision practices. There is no comprehensive information available on the supervision practices of BCBA/BCBAs used with precertification candidate supervisors. Current recommended supervision practices are derived from the Professional and Ethical Compliance Code (PECC) 5.0 Behavior Analyst as a Supervisor. Leaders in the field have attempted to further define individual behaviors that support compliance with 5.0 Behavior Analyst as a Supervisor (LeBlanc, Heinicke, & Baker, 2012; LeBlanc & Luiselli, 2016; Sellers, Alai-Rosales, & MacDonald, 2016, 2016; Sellers, Valentino, & LeBlanc, 2016, & Turner, Fischer, & Luiselli, 2016; Valentino, LeBlanc, & Sellers, 2016). Recommendations made by the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB) regarding ongoing refinements to the supervision standards have been without published data or the use of empirical studies. The purpose of my study was to examine the supervision practices of BCBA/BCBA-D who supervise precertification candidates and to determine if there were any statistically significant differences between supervisor demographics and supervision practices. An additional correlation test (i.e., Spearman Correlation; January 2019) was conducted to evaluate for any associations between self-reported frequency of supervisor behaviors and precertification candidates BACB exam pass rate. I developed the Supervision Practices of Precertification Candidates (SPPC) survey to assess the reported occurrence of recommended supervisor behaviors used by BCBA/BCBA-D supervisors with precertification candidates (PS). The data showed that the majority of BCBA/BCBA-D precertification candidate supervisors self-report 4 usually on average across all forty-six supervisor behaviors that support compliance with the PECC 5.0 Behavior Analyst as a Supervisor. There was a varying degree of self-reported frequency in certain individual behaviors of PECC 5.0 Behavior Analyst as a Supervisor categories ranging from 2 rarely to 5 almost always. The results of a 112 analyses of variance (ANOVAs) showed that there were thirty-five significant differences in PECC 5.0 Behavior Analyst as a Supervisor categories and demographics. Allotted time for supervision activities by an employer and access to multiple precertification candidates appeared to influence reported frequency of supervision practices that support compliance with 5.0 Behavior Analyst as a Supervisor. The results of the Spearman Correlation identified seven correlations between individual supervisor behaviors and impacts on precertification candidate BACB exam pass rate. Two of these correlations offer data for the BACB forthcoming January 1, 2022 supervision restrictions for allowing newly certified behavior analysts to supervisor precertification candidates