Outcome evaluation of active support training in Taiwan.
Active Support Training nudges residents toward more choice and chores but leaves challenging behavior and community outings flat.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Chou et al. (2011) tested Active Support Training in Taiwan. They taught group-home staff how to give residents more choices and help them join in daily tasks.
The team measured residents’ choice, chores, mood, and problem behavior before and after staff training. They used a simple pre-post design with no control group.
What they found
After the workshop, residents picked more activities, did more housework, and showed fewer signs of depression. These gains were small but real.
Challenging behavior and trips into the community did not change. The training helped quality of life a little, not a lot.
How this fits with other research
McMillan et al. (1999) ran a similar study in the UK and saw bigger boosts in resident engagement. Both used Active Support, yet the UK team saw medium gains while Taiwan saw only small ones. The drop in effect size hints that culture, staffing ratios, or how the training was done may matter.
Ruby et al. (2022) and Fuesy et al. (2025) show that staff can improve without big workshops. A tablet to self-monitor or quick feedback sheets also raised positive interactions and treatment fidelity. These lighter tools may be easier to keep than full Active Support.
Johnson et al. (2025) note that staff training on psych meds raises knowledge but rarely changes prescribing. Likewise, Yueh-Ching found staff training lifted skills yet left challenging behavior untouched. Together they warn: teaching staff is only step one; real behavior change may need extra layers.
Why it matters
If you run a group home, Active Support Training can give you modest wins—more resident choice and slightly happier moods. Do not bank on it to slash problem behavior or get people into the community. Pair it with self-monitoring, feedback, or function-based plans if you want bigger change.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Active Support was implemented for the first time in Taiwan in March, 2009. This study aims to evaluate whether the supervisors and front line managers of residential services receiving Active Support Training (AST) caused a positive impact on their users with intellectual disabilities (ID) while comparing this with their counterparts with ID whose residential staff were not being involved in the training. The nonequivalent groups design was used for the evaluation; the participants included 49 residents of 12 community living homes as the experimental group and 19 residents of another 5 community living homes as the comparative group. The pretest evaluation was conducted before the AST and the post-test and follow-up evaluations were conducted following 4 months and 14 months after the pre-test respectively. The assessment package contained questionnaires relating to domestic engagement, community inclusion, choice, social network, mood scales, challenging behaviors, adaptive behavior and demographic questions among the residents with ID. Within the group, analyses showed that the residents whose staff received AST showed increased levels of choice and adaptive behavior and decreased levels of depression in the post-test and follow up in addition the residents' engagement in domestic activities improved in the follow up. The intervention did not affect the frequency of family contact, community inclusion and challenging behavior among the residents. The residents in the comparative group showed no significant change except the levels of depression decreased comparing follow-up test and post-test. Based on a cross groups comparison of the effect of the intervention among the residents, only a decreased level of depression was found in the post-test results of the both groups. This study suggests Active Support is practicable but only partially effective in Taiwan; thus, conducting an AST Package of Taiwan version is expectable.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2011 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2011.01.011