Personal Recovery in Addictions: Development of a new Assessment Instrument

BACKGROUND: Identifying the key aspects of personal recovery in addictions is crucial for advancing recovery-oriented services. In Spain, no validated measures capture what service users consider most important for their recovery. This study aimed to design and validate the Personal Recovery Importance Scale (PRIS), an expanded CHIME-based instrument tailored to the addiction context. METHOD: = 1,604). Phase 1 focused on item development; Phases 2 and 3 assessed content and response process validity; and Phase 4 examined psychometric properties. RESULTS: 42.4% of the items were revised after expert feedback and 44% following cognitive interviews. Psychometric analysis supported a seven-factor model (Connectedness, Hope, Identity, Meaning in life, Empowerment, Difficulties, and Practical support-CHIME-DP) with robust fit indices, invariance across recovery stages, satisfactory internal consistency, concurrent and discriminant validity, and hypothesis testing with key recovery variables. CONCLUSIONS: These findings confirm the content, face, and psychometric validity of the PRIS. This tool may be useful for prioritising and designing interventions and represents a first step towards developing PROMs and PREMs measures in Spain.