Self-Esteem in 12-Step Recovery; Theoretical History, Evidence, and Implications for Future Research

ABSTRACT

Recovery from substance use disorder is a complex process whereby an interplay of personal strengths, interpersonal relationships, and contextual factors come together to make recovery possible. New and emerging theories and definitions of recovery are prompting recovery-informed research that places a premium on operationalizing known features of the recovery process into new instruments and methods. We hypothesize that self-esteem plays a central role in the recovery process such that it may one day serve as a benchmark of recovery growth and progress. In this article, we use a secondary analysis of an existing dataset to examine self-esteem as a central intrapersonal variable in a sample of people in recovery from substance use disorder (N = 113) and identify correlates with psychological and personality factors associated with recovery. Our findings provide additional evidence that self-esteem, and correlates of self-esteem, may represent a bundle of intrapersonal psychosocial variables that should be considered as essential constructs within recovery-related research, therapeutic technique, and treatment outcome expectancies.

KEYWORDS:

• Substance use disorders
• recovery
• self-esteem
• 12-steps

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.