ABA glossary
Multiple relationship
Also called dual relationship
Definition
Holding a professional role with someone, such as a client, a client's family member or other stakeholder, a supervisor, a supervisee, or a coworker, while also holding another role with them, now or planned for the future. Also called a dual relationship.
In plain words
A multiple relationship mixes your professional role with a personal, financial, or other role: babysitting for a client's family, becoming friends with a caregiver, selling them products, or providing services to a relative's child. The risk is that the second role clouds judgment, creates conflicts of interest, or allows the client to be harmed or exploited. Ethics codes for RBTs and behavior analysts ask practitioners to avoid multiple relationships and to resolve them when they arise.
Example from a session
A caregiver asks the RBT to babysit her son, the RBT's client, on Saturday nights for extra pay. The RBT says, "Thank you for asking. I'm not able to work with your family outside our sessions, but I'll let my supervisor know you asked." She tells her BCBA the same day and documents the conversation as agency policy requires.
For BCBA candidates and supervisors
Analysts distinguish multiple relationships from incidental contact (a brief, unplanned meeting at a store) and from conflicts of interest more broadly. When a multiple relationship cannot be avoided, as in small communities, the practitioner informs the supervisor, documents the situation, and puts safeguards in place to protect the client's interests, such as clarifying roles, limiting contact, or transferring services. Supervisors also watch for multiple relationships with supervisees, including financial or social ties that compromise objective feedback and evaluation.
Often confused with conflict of interest, incidental contact
A multiple relationship is having another role with a client or someone close to them. A conflict of interest is any situation in which personal interests could compromise professional judgment; multiple relationships are a common source of one. Incidental contact is an unplanned, brief encounter outside work and is not a multiple relationship by itself.
Exam tip
If a stem describes the RBT taking on any second role with a client or their family (friend, babysitter, business partner), the best answer is to decline or address it and inform the supervisor. Seeing a family at the grocery store is incidental contact, not a multiple relationship.
Can you spot multiple relationship in a scenario?
Practice RBT F.7 with exam-style questions and instant feedback.