2022 Job Analysis Executive Summary

Overview

The Art Therapy Credentials Board (ATCB) conducted a national Job Task Analysis (JTA) in 2022 to identify the knowledge, skills, tasks, and practice characteristics relevant to competent contemporary art therapy practice. The study provided the practice-based foundation for revision of the Art Therapy Credentials Board Examination (ATCBE) content outline and examination blueprint.

Development began in 2021 with review of ATCB’s prior job analyses and the then-current examination content outline. A Job Analysis Special Committee of board-certified art therapists refined the survey through committee review, beta testing, and pilot review before national distribution in 2022. The survey and subsequent analytical work were designed to identify important elements of current professional practice and to translate those findings into defensible examination specifications.

The resulting examination framework contains six domains. The revised content outline was subsequently implemented with Prometric through additional psychometric analysis, form review, beta testing, standard setting, and formal ATCB Board action.

Study at a Glance

Survey Development and Administration

ATCB planned the 2022 JTA approximately five years after its 2017 job analysis. The Job Analysis Special Committee began by reviewing prior survey instruments and the existing examination framework. Committee records document discussion of changes in professional practice, including cultural responsiveness and diversity, telehealth and online practice, evolving media and materials, and the need for clearer distinctions among work domains.

The survey underwent iterative refinement. A subset of the Certification Committee participated in beta testing, a second pilot group reviewed a subsequent version, and requested changes were incorporated before public administration. The fielded instrument screened for recent art therapy practice and gathered information on credentials, experience, work settings, client populations, diagnoses, service formats, ethics, supervision, cultural responsiveness, media/materials, theoretical approaches, intake and evaluation, assessment, clinical skills, treatment needs, documentation, research, and other professional functions.

The SurveyMonkey all-data export contains 1,233 respondent records collected between April 18 and June 18, 2022. Of 1,197 respondents who answered the eligibility screen, 1,168 reported providing art therapy services within the prior five years and 29 were screened out. The approved survey invitation requested completion by June 18, 2022 and identified that date as the survey close. Historical project documentation states that, after data cleaning, data from more than 1,000 respondents were used in subsequent examination-development analyses.

Subject Matter Expert Oversight

ATCB recruited a special committee of current ATR-BC professionals familiar with contemporary art therapy practice. The retained panel record documents seven SMEs from Utah, Georgia, Texas, Ohio, Oklahoma, New Jersey, and California. Their combined experience included private practice, graduate education, community mental health, inpatient psychiatry, medical settings, trauma treatment, foster/adoptive populations, supervision, ethics, assessment, research, older-adult services, tele-art therapy, and community/social-justice practice.

The SMEs were involved throughout the process: survey development, pilot review, interpretation of analytical results, definition and labeling of content domains, refinement of subdomains, and weighting of the final blueprint. This sustained SME involvement ensured that statistical findings were interpreted in the context of real-world professional practice rather than used mechanically.

Analysis and Development of the Content Outline

The retained February 2023 narrative describes a mixed quantitative and qualitative approach. Exploratory factor analysis was used to evaluate possible work-domain structures, and surviving analytical workbooks document comparison of multiple six-factor solutions. The contemporaneous narrative states that a six-factor structure was selected by balancing parsimony with professional rationale.

SMEs then evaluated the emerging factor structure using factor loadings and professional judgment, assigned meaningful domain labels, and refined placement of tasks and subdomains. December 2022 and January 2023 correspondence documents review of six proposed models, discussion of poorly fitting items, and a four-hour committee meeting to finalize the outline. The resulting edited content outline is dated January 29, 2023 and identifies the outline as established February 1, 2023.

To establish examination weighting, SMEs also completed a qualitative “day-in-the-life” exercise. Panelists considered the proportion of a typical professional day associated with groups of work behaviors. SME judgment from this exercise informed the percentage assigned to each final domain.

Final Six-Domain Blueprint

The percentage blueprint derives from the 2022 JTA. The current 150-scored-item targets reflect ATCB’s later psychometrically supported decision to shorten the examination while preserving proportional content coverage.

Implementation and Additional Validation with Prometric

The 2022 JTA and initial content-outline development occurred under ATCB’s prior examination-development arrangements. The revised outline was established February 1, 2023 and published July 1, 2023, with implementation originally anticipated for January 2024. Following the spring 2023 end of ATCB’s prior management relationship and the June 2023 transition of examination development and administration to Prometric, ATCB deferred implementation to January 2025 to allow a full transition and examination-development period.

Validity and Quality Assurance

Taken together, the surviving evidence establishes a coherent chain from current professional practice to examination specifications and implementation. The JTA identified practice content; quantitative analysis and SME judgment organized that content into domains; SMEs established domain weights; Prometric evaluated the effect of shortening the examination; SMEs reviewed the operational form; beta-candidate data informed standard setting; and ATCB’s Board formally adopted the passing standard.

Continuity of SME oversight is a particular strength. Seven documented members of the original JTA panel later participated in the 2024 Prometric form review, creating a direct bridge between the practice analysis and item-level implementation of the revised examination specifications.

Methodological Documentation Note

ATCB did not retain a single consolidated technical report from the contractor supporting the 2022 JTA. The companion Technical Report therefore assembles the contemporaneous project record retained by ATCB, including survey-development materials, the respondent-facing survey, the raw SurveyMonkey export, analytical workbooks, SME records, committee reports and correspondence, content-outline mapping materials, Board records, and later Prometric psychometric reports.

The retained record is sufficient to document the overall study chronology, survey development, respondent volume, SME qualifications and involvement, analytical approach, six-domain outcome, blueprint weighting, and subsequent examination implementation. Historical limitations are reported transparently, including the absence of a single contractor technical report, incomplete retention of individual weighting worksheets, and the informal nature of the external key-informant feedback step.

Conclusion

The 2022 national Job Task Analysis provided the practice-based foundation for the current ATCBE. The study incorporated iterative survey development, national practitioner participation, quantitative factor analysis, and structured SME judgment. The resulting six-domain content outline was subsequently operationalized through Prometric-supported psychometric analysis, form review, beta testing, standard setting, and formal governance approval.

The assembled evidence demonstrates a clear and documented relationship between contemporary art therapy practice and the knowledge and skills assessed by the current examination. ATCB continues to use this evidence as part of its ongoing examination-development, quality-assurance, and continuous-improvement processes.

Primary Documentation Supporting This Summary