Introduction to the measurement of recovery capital

The field of recovery capital began to develop conceptually in the first decade of the 21st century, primarily in the United States and the United Kingdom (Best and Hennessy, 2022). The emergence of this new field meant a shift of focus in the addiction recovery literature towards a strengths-based and capital-building oriented approach (Best and Hennessy, 2022). One of the key drivers for the development of measures of recovery capital was the recognition that a strengths-based measurement approach was needed to challenge and complement the traditional deficit-based approach dominating the addiction literature (Burns, 2019). Consequently, measures that can assess recovery capital to advance the research in the field and to bring this concept to practical recovery support settings started to be developed (Sterling et al, 2008; White and Cloud, 2008; Groshkova et al, 2013; Burns, 2019). However, the processes of theoretical and measurement advancements are inherently intertwined. Although the conceptual groundwork influenced how recovery capital measures were developed, the reverse is also true, in the sense that theory development and refinement are also informed by the evolution of these measures (Best and Hennessy, 2022; Bunaciu et al, 2023).

The development of sound measurement tools for assessing recovery capital has played a central role in supporting approaches to substance use disorder treatment. However, measure development is not a simple process. Rigorous questionnaire development is a time-consuming iterative process involving input from many categories of stakeholders, such as researchers, practitioners, and individuals with lived experience (Boateng et al, 2018).