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Character Strengths, Coping, and Addiction Recovery: a Mediation Analysis

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Abstract

The present cross-sectional online survey study explored the relationship between character strengths, coping, and addiction recovery in a sample of 425 US individuals who self-reported to be diagnosed with or treated for alcohol or drug abuse, and are currently seeking to resolve, are working towards resolving, or have resolved an alcohol or drug problem. Measures for character strengths, substance-specific coping, general approach/avoidance coping, and addiction recovery were included. Results showed that 11 character strengths were associated with better recovery after controlling for current substance use. Net general approach coping mediated the relationships between 19 character strengths and recovery after controlling for current substance use. However, the mediation effect of substance-specific coping was not confirmed. The findings suggest that many character strengths are related to better general coping and recovery, and individual strengths may be targeted in clinical interventions to promote positive coping and addiction recovery.

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Data Availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr. Daniel Bolt, Dr. Malachy Bishop, and Dr. Timothy Tansey for their suggestions and feedback on study design and statistical analysis.

Funding

The study was funded by the 2021 Foundation for Rehabilitation Psychology Dissertation Award.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Special Education and Counseling, California State University, Los Angeles, 5151 State University Dr, Los Angeles, CA, 90032, USA

    Yunzhen Huang

  2. Department of Rehabilitation Psychology and Special Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 53706, USA

    Susan Smedema

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  1. Yunzhen Huang
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  2. Susan Smedema
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Correspondence to Yunzhen Huang.

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All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000 (5). Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.

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Huang, Y., Smedema, S. Character Strengths, Coping, and Addiction Recovery: a Mediation Analysis. Int J Ment Health Addiction (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-023-01211-x

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