Being "in sync" with others during early alcohol and opioid recovery: The role of positive social interactions in generating recovery capital and buffering health disparities - Project Summary/Abstract Both positive emotional functioning and social connection are important to substance use disorder recovery, but scarce research has investigated how they are intertwined. “Positivity resonance” is what happens when two or more people share positive emotions, mutual care for each other, and biobehavioral synchrony (e.g., eye contact). This construct has gained traction in positive affective research as an indicator of positive emotional functioning and high-quality social interaction between persons, thereby functioning to have a lasting upward spiral effect on health and well-being in both individuals and communities across a range of contexts. Studying how positivity resonance might be related to recovery outcomes for people in early recovery could help shed light on the role of this supportive factor in the recovery process. Given the established link between certain disadvantaged social determinants of health (SDOH) and less-favorable social connectedness and positive emotional functioning, experiencing positivity resonance in recovery may buffer against the deleterious effects of certain SDOH. This study proposes to examine an understudied interpersonal affective construct, positivity resonance, across a diverse sample of people with varied recovery pathways. First (Aim 1), we will conduct secondary data analysis of two studies: (1) a randomized controlled trial of Zoom-delivered mindfulness-based relapse prevention compared to referral to online mutual help as aftercare among n=430 people in alcohol use disorder (AUD) recovery nationwide (“THRIVE Study”); and (2) a longitudinal naturalistic study of n=64 people receiving medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) clinical care near recovery community centers (RCCs) in predominantly Black American communities (“RCC MOUD Study”). We will use latent growth curve and parallel process models to examine how positivity resonance changes alongside recovery capital (measured via the Brief Assessment of Recovery Capital) over 1 year. Aim 2 will examine the moderating role of positivity resonance in the relationship between certain SDOH (e.g., income, education, housing) and recovery capital across both studies, using a series of moderation analyses. Lastly, Aim 3 will involve conducting individual interviews, and subsequent qualitative analysis using a grounded theory approach, with a subsample of interested participants from each parent study (n=15 from each study) in order to contextualize quantitative findings and more holistically explore how positivity resonance occurs in recovery and its effects. The results of this study will increase understanding of how positivity resonance, a construct capturing interpersonal positive emotional functioning with links to adaptive individual- and community-level health outcomes, can facilitate substance use disorder recovery. Results might identify a treatment target and/or explicate mechanisms of peer recovery support, and how applicable positivity resonance is to those with more disadvantaged SDOH.
