ENBA
EUROPEAN NETWORK OF BEHAVIOUR ANALYSTS
Join Us NowUp to now, the followings bodies are members of ENBA:
Bodies outside Europe that are members of ENBA:
Independent professionals currently collaborating with ENBA:
Independent Professionals
Organizations
Founder and host of the European Network of Behaviour Analysts (ENBA)
Purpose of the Network
Spreading ABA, thus giving a chance to many other people to become aware of and have access to evidence-based behavioural services.
Fighting prejudices surrounding ABA.
Connecting ABA professionals.
Tools used by the network
Social Media
Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn.
Websites
Data Driven ABA and partners’ websites.
Conferences
On-site participation in EU ABA conferences.
How does ENBA work?
Any professional or organisation related to ABA can ask to join the network. Data Driven ABA may recommend associations, professionals and partners met on the field to become ENBA members.
Members can email us including a link to their social media posts related to ABA.
The ENBA team will evaluate if the post is eligible for sharing according to:
The post must include information on either:
- ABA and related false myths or misconceptions.
- Scientific studies related to the field.
- Congresses related to field.
- ABAI approved Verified Course Sequence to become behaviour analysts and other courses which have ABA as the main topic.
- Certification programs related to the field.
The post will be considered acceptable if:
- it is respectful of diversity;
- it is not offensive;
- it is scientifically sound;
- it is true, to the best knowledge of the ENBA team;
- it does not promote misconceptions about ABA;
- it does not reveal any personally identifiable information or sensitive data about a third party (e.g., client of an ABA service);
- it is expressed in a language that can be understood by people who are new to ABA.
The ENBA team will send the post(s) via e-mail to all ENBA members.
ENBA member can choose whether to open the posts received by e-mail and freely decide whether to share them in their social media channels.
Posts must be written in English for international sharing, but can be written in local languages to be shared among ENBA members of the same country.
Professionals and organisations can unsubscribe at any time, just by e-mail.
There are no costs, no bonds. ENBA just want to spread ABA.
It’s easy,
It’s practical,
It’s FREE,
and it can help spread ABA!
ABA is a science. It is rigorous, it is effective in solving people’s problems, it is regulated by strong ethical codes and it is radically evidence-based.
Despite these qualities and despite the great spread in the US and Canada, ABA is far less widespread in Europe.
The Behaviour Analyst Certification Board, Inc.® (BACB®) is a nonprofit organization established in the US in 1998 which has been the leader in behaviour analysts certification for over two decades.
The BACB® provides certifications to applicants who have achieved standard training requirements. These certifications are:
- BCBA-D® – Board Certified Behavior Analyst – Doctoral
- BCBA® – Board Certified Behavior Analyst
- BCaBA® – Board Certified Assistant Behavior Analyst
- RBT® – Registered Behavior Technician
There are more than 175,000 BACB® certificants in the world.
(Behavior Analyst Certification Board. (n.d). BACB certificant data. Retrieved from bacb.com)
168,000 of these (96%) are residents of the United States.
Switzerland, which is the headquarters of DDA, had 4 BCBA®s in 2013. Almost 10 years later, they are just 22.
Switzerland is particularly lacking in behaviour analysts, but European Countries are not much different, especially considering the behaviour analysts rate in relation to the country population.
Here are some data on the number of Board Certified Behavior Analysts® per million of citizens in the European area.
(Behavior Analyst Certification Board. (n.d). Region-Specific Certificant Data. Retrieved from bacb.com; Eurostat. Population on 1 January by age and sex. Retrieved from European Comision)
| Country | BCBAs® 2013 | BCBAs® 2022 | Population (2020 Eurostat figure) | BCBAs® per million of citizens – 2022 (rough estimation) | |
| 1 | Ireland | 43 | 207 | 4.964.440 | 41.7 |
| 2 | UK (non EU) | 84 | 1.659 | 67.025.542 | 24.8 |
| 3 | Malta | 0 | 7 | 514.564 | 13.6 |
| 4 | Cyprus | 3 | 7 | 888.005 | 7.9 |
| 5 | Italy | 15 | 372 | 59.641.488 | 6.2 |
| 6 | Luxembourg | 1 | 2 | 626.108 | 3.2 |
| 7 | Latvia | 1 | 5 | 1.907.675 | 2.6 |
| 8 | Switzerland (non EU) | 4 | 22 | 8.606.033 | 2.6 |
| 9 | Romania | 5 | 49 | 19.328.838 | 2.5 |
| 10 | Netherland | 1 | 38 | 17.407.585 | 2.2 |
| 11 | Czech Republic | 0 | 18 | 10.693.939 | 1.7 |
| 12 | Sweden | 4 | 16 | 10.327.589 | 1.5 |
| 13 | Estonia | 0 | 2 | 1.328.976 | 1.5 |
| 14 | Greece | 2 | 16 | 10.718.565 | 1.5 |
| 15 | France | 11 | 93 | 67.320.216 | 1.4 |
| 16 | Norway (non EU) | 0 | 6 | 5.367.580 | 1.1 |
| 17 | Slovak Republic | 1 | 5 | 5.457.873 | 0.9 |
| 18 | Spain | 1 | 42 | 47.332.614 | 0.9 |
| 19 | Lithuania | 1 | 2 | 2.794.090 | 0.7 |
| 20 | Denmark | 0 | 4 | 5.822.763 | 0.7 |
| 21 | Portugal | 1 | 7 | 10.295.909 | 0.7 |
| 22 | Germany | 5 | 51 | 83.166.711 | 0.6 |
| 23 | Poland | 3 | 23 | 37.958.138 | 0.6 |
| 24 | Belgium | 1 | 5 | 11.522.440 | 0.4 |
| 25 | Bulgaria | 1 | 3 | 6.951.482 | 0.4 |
| 26 | Hungary | 1 | 4 | 9.769.526 | 0.4 |
| 27 | Austria | 0 | 2 | 8.901.064 | 0.2 |
| 28 | Finland | 1 | 0 | 5.525.292 | 0 |
| 29 | Slovenia | 0 | 0 | 2.095.861 | 0 |
| 30 | Croatia | Unavailable | Unavailable | 4.058.165 | Unavailable |
| TOTAL | 29 Countries | 190 | 2.667 | 524.260.906 | 5.1 |
| USA | 8.297 | 113.330 | 326.569.308 | 347 | |
| *Population 2020 (data.census.gov) |
The gap with the United States is large. Where the USA have 347 behavior analysts per million of citizens, Europe has 5.
According to our experience in the field, many variables contribute to the gap. In particular, we note the following:
- People do not know what ABA is. Quite often, they do not even know it exists.
- People are prejudiced against ABA and consider it to be a sort of dog training or an abusive, non-compassionate and cruel method that is totally unsuitable for human beings.
- People often misunderstand ABA, because this science usually describes people in a way which is different from common cultural and social conceptions.
These are major problems. ABA might help millions of people to improve their lives, but at this pace it will take centuries to have enough behaviour analysts for the entire EU population.