Identifying and Unlocking Resources to Support Recovery
The Multidimensional Inventory of Recovery Capital (MIRC)
Recovering from addiction is a complex and dynamic process. To effectively help people reach their recovery goals, we must consider all of the factors within their life that could promote or deter their recovery.
Recovery capital captures the full spectrum of resources that impact an individual's recovery — from their family and friends, to their housing and finances, to their health and cultural traditions.
The Multidimensional Inventory of Recovery Capital (MIRC) is a new reliable and valid measure of recovery capital — a powerful tool that can help clinicians and social workers better support clients in recovery. For researchers, the MIRC is a crucial step to advancing our understanding of how different sources of capital facilitate recovery.
Finally, for individuals in recovery, the MIRC can help you reflect on the resources you have to improve your well-being and sustain your recovery.
The MIRC was created by a multidisciplinary team of researchers — led by Elizabeth Bowen, PhD, associate professor in the University at Buffalo School of Social Work — with funding from the U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Read more about the MIRC and their research.
To use the MIRC, download an accessible PDF at the link below, which includes instructions for how to score the measure. For best results, please open the measure in Firefox, Safari or Microsoft Edge.
What does your score on the MIRC mean?
Total scores on the MIRC can range from 28 to 112, with lower scores indicating less recovery capital and higher scores indicating more recovery capital. Since this is a new measure, the researchers are still gathering data on how people score on it. In the study developing the MIRC, the average total score was 77.4, with a standard deviation of 13.1.
In addition to your total score, look at your score on the four subscales (social, physical, human and cultural capital), each of which can range from 7 to 28.
Keep in mind: The MIRC is not an indicator of who will "succeed" in recovery. It is a way of looking at the resources you have to support your recovery (positive capital) and the things in your life that might make recovery more challenging (negative capital).
We suggest using your MIRC score to reflect on this balance: How can you continue to build on your strengths in terms of positive social, physical, human and cultural capital? How can you reduce your negative capital in each of these areas?
Recovery capital is a term for the different things that help or hinder a person as they recover from problems with alcohol or other drugs.
There are several kinds of recovery capital, including:
- Social capital: Friends, family members and others who support a person’s recovery journey
- Examples: A close friend who is also in recovery and provides wisdom and encouragement; a spouse who is not in recovery but supports your recovery goals
- Physical capital: Money, jobs, stable housing, transportation and other resources that provide a foundation for recovery
- Examples: Health insurance that pays for substance use treatment; a car you can use to go to AA meetings and recreational activities
- Human capital: Skills, attitudes, knowledge, health attributes and interests that help in recovery
- Examples: A sense of spirituality that helps you feel optimistic about recovery; having skills to effectively cope with stress and triggers
- Cultural capital: Cultural values, rituals and community-level resources that support recovery
- Examples: Taking part in cultural activities that celebrate recovery; living in a neighborhood that feels safe and welcoming
Although people often think about recovery capital in terms of positive things that support recovery, recovery capital also includes negative capital, or things that deter recovery or make it harder. For example, a source of negative social capital could be family members who don’t understand a person’s recovery and might encourage them to continue to use substances.
Recovery capital is based on research conducted more than 20 years ago by Robert Granfield, PhD, a professor of sociology at the University at Buffalo, and William Cloud, a professor in the University of Denver’s Graduate School of Social Work. They were interested in the factors that help people recover, especially those who do so without going to treatment programs or attending self-help groups. Granfield and Cloud developed the theory of recovery capital based on in-depth interviews with this population. Since then, recovery capital has been researched with many groups, including adolescents, older adults, people returning to their communities following incarceration and people living in rural areas.
The Multidimensional Inventory of Recovery Capital, or MIRC, is a tool to measure recovery capital. It measures four types of recovery capital: social, physical, human and cultural. Within each category, the MIRC assesses both positive and negative forms of capital.
Anyone interested in recovery and recovery capital can use the MIRC, including researchers, people working in the addiction treatment field (like therapists, nurses, social workers, psychologists, other clinicians and peer support workers), and people in recovery who want to self-assess their recovery capital.
Elizabeth Bowen, PhD, associate professor in the UB School of Social Work, led a team of researchers in creating the MIRC because of a shared interest in recovery and improving the measurement of recovery capital. As they worked on the MIRC, their priority was to get feedback throughout the process from a diverse range of people in recovery.
The research team developed the MIRC in three phases:
- Phase 1: The study team did interviews and held focus groups with 35 people in recovery from alcohol problems and nine service providers to get feedback on the items listed on the MIRC.
- Phase 2: A large sample of 497 individuals completed a draft version of the MIRC and other measures. Based on the psychometric analysis of this data, the study team made changes to the MIRC, including removing several items.
- Phase 3: The study team recruited a second large sample of 482 individuals, who completed the MIRC and additional measures. The team cut a few more items from the MIRC based on these analyses and created the final version of the MIRC with 28 items divided into four subscales (social, physical, human and cultural capital).
A diverse group of people participated in the research across these three phases, including those from different racial and ethnic groups (Black/African American, White, Native American, Asian and Pacific Islander, Hispanic/Latinx), gender identities, income levels and sexual orientations. In addition, the study included individuals with varying lengths of time in recovery and recovery pathways (for example, people engaged in abstinent recovery and moderate alcohol use, and those who attend treatment and self-help groups and those recovering without these resources).
The final MIRC has good psychometric properties, which means it is a consistent and accurate tool for measuring recovery capital. There is strong reliability for the full MIRC measure (α=.91; ICC=.91) and subscales (α=.65 to .81; ICC=.72 to .92) and good concurrent validity, with correlations ranging from r=.41 to .76 for the MIRC subscales and full scale with related measures.
For a full report on the MIRC's psychometric properties, read the team's paper in Drug and Alcohol Dependence. In addition, their paper in Addiction Research & Theory discusses using qualitative methods to develop the MIRC items.
Principal Investigator
- Elizabeth Bowen, PhD, associate professor, University at Buffalo School of Social Work
Co-Investigators and Co-Authors
- Andrew Irish, PhD, assistant professor, West Virginia University School of Social Work, and alumnus of the UB School of Social Work PhD program
- Gregory Wilding, PhD, professor and chair, Department of Biostatistics, UB School of Public Health and Health Professions
- Charles LaBarre, PhD student, UB School of Social Work
- Nicole Capozziello, PhD candidate, UB School of Social Work
- Thomas Nochajski, PhD, research professor emeritus, UB School of Social Work
- Robert Granfield, PhD, vice provost for faculty affairs, University at Buffalo, and professor of sociology, UB College of Arts and Sciences
- Lee Ann Kaskutas, DrPH, senior scientist emerita, Alcohol Research Group
We would love to hear how you are using the MIRC for self-assessing your recovery capital, in research or in practice with people recovering from addiction. Complete the form below to share your feedback or ask questions about the MIRC.
- The research funders: This work was funded by the U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), under award number R21AA028099 and T32AA007583 to the University at Buffalo. (For more information about the grant, read this article.) The research, and the content of this website, are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH
- The following recovery research experts, who reviewed and provided feedback on the initial list of items for the MIRC: Dr. Audrey Begun, Dr. Clara Bradizza, Dr. Susan Collins, Dr. Gerard Connors, Dr. Paul Gilbert, Dr. Emily Hennessy, Dr. Amy Krentzman, Dr. Paul Stasiewicz and Dr. Katie Witkiewitz
- The University at Buffalo Clinical and Translational Science Institute’s Buffalo Research Registry, Dr. Bettina Hoeppner and the Recovery Research Institute, and the African American Federation of Recovery Organizations for their assistance with recruitment
- Melissa Miller and the UB School of Social Work's Buffalo Center for Social Research for their administrative support
- Most importantly, the study participants for sharing their stories, experiences and critical perspectives
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
How to Cite
University at Buffalo School of Social Work. (2023). Identifying and unlocking resources to support recovery: The Multidimensional Inventory of Recovery Capital (MIRC). https://socialwork.buffalo.edu/mirc.
Published May 9, 2023