This study focused on the ability to experience a high ratio of positive to negative emotions in 807 Israeli adolescents aged 12 to 15 years (50% girls). While considering possible gender differences, we tested a model positing that adolescents' self-control skills would link to their positivity ratio and indirectly through perceived social support from parents and classmates. Parental support was significantly higher than classmate support, and girls scored significantly higher than boys on self-control skills and on both support sources. Self-control skills linked directly with positivity ratio and indirectly through parents' and classmates' support, with no gender differences found for the overall model. The study highlights the importance of prevention and treatment programs designed to impart adolescents with prosocial self-control skills, to improve their perceived availability of social support and consequently to increase their positivity ratio during this intense developmental period.

Recovery capital (RC) is an emerging conceptual framework in the addiction field that pinpoints the internal and external (i.e., human, community, cultural, social, financial) resources individuals can draw on throughout the recovery process. The concept of RC was developed and applied primarily to individuals who have recovered from substance addiction. The aim of this study was to extend the RC conceptual framework to gambling disorder (GD)-which is classified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.; DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013) as a behavioral addiction-and to identify and conceptualize RC resources implemented by individuals who have recovered from GD. Ninety-one individuals who reported a lifetime history of DSM-5 GD but who had not exceeded the DSM-5 GD threshold criteria in the previous year, were interviewed about the factors that helped them throughout their recovery. Directed content analyses identified 12 main RC resources that were classified under 4 RC domains: human capital (subjective well-being, self-efficacy, self-control skills, proactive coping skills, socioemotional skills, reconstruction skills), community capital (prorecovery environment, professional therapeutic milieu), social capital (recovering gamblers' peer group, friends without a GD, family), and financial capital (prorecovery financial state). These findings are the first step toward formulating a comprehensive conceptual model of RC applicable to GD. This study extends the RC and the gambling literature by presenting a holistic view of recovery from GD in many facets of life, and underscores the importance of observing strengths and resources in treating people with GD. Public Policy Relevance StatementGambling disorder (GD) is a behavioral addiction. Recovery capital (RC) is a conceptual framework that encompasses the internal and external resources implemented throughout the recovery process. The findings highlight the importance of possessing various RC resources in the GD recovery process, and call upon policymakers to implement a holistic intervention perspective and develop services that provide broad responses to support recovery from GD at the individual, community, social, and financial levels.

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Background and aimsThe concept of recovery capital (RC) describes the internal and external resources that individuals draw upon to initiate and sustain the processes of addiction recovery. This concept has been primarily applied to individuals recovering from substance addictions. In this study, the RC concept was applied to individuals with a gambling disorder (GD) to test its associations with the diagnosis and severity of GD and with levels of psychopathology as manifested in depression and anxiety.MethodsA sample of 140 individuals who recovered or did not recover from a GD was drawn from lists of former and currently treated individuals in five gambling treatment centers in Israel. The DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for GD, Assessment of Recovery Capital and Brief Assessment of Recovery Capital Scales adapted to Gambling, Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale, and the Patient Health Questionnaire 9 which measures depression were used.ResultsRC clearly distinguishes between individuals who have recovered from GD and those who have not. A structural equation model showed significant negative associations between RC and GD severity, depression, and generalized anxiety. The associations between GD severity and depression and anxiety were not significant. However, when omitting the path between RC and depression/anxiety, the associations between GD and depression/anxiety became significant.ConclusionsRC plays an important role in GD severity and diagnosis, as well as in psychopathology. This study extends the concept of RC to the area of gambling and contributes to the growing body of studies that have found parallels and common denominators between substance addiction and behavioral addictions.

Understanding how factors promoting recovery from gambling disorder operate is important in gambling studies and treatment programs. The recovery experience may involve multiple positive resources and may be hindered by negative experiences or states. Most prior studies have focused on the latter, generating a gap in understanding the role for positive psychology measures in recovery from gambling disorder. This study investigated the associations between symptom improvement in gambling disorder and positive resources operationalized as recovery capital (internal and external resources that individuals may draw upon during the recovery process) and intrinsic spirituality. Negative experiences and states, including stressful life events, depression, and anxiety, were also considered. One hundred and 40 individuals (101 men) with a lifetime gambling disorder treated in 5 treatment centers in Israel were assessed on DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for gambling disorder (lifetime and past-year), Brief Assessment of Recovery Capital Scale adapted to gambling disorder, Intrinsic Spirituality Scale, Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale, Patient Health Questionnaire 9 for depression, and Stressful Life Events Scale. Improvement in gambling disorder was calculated by subtracting the criteria count for the previous year from the lifetime count. Although anxiety, stressful life events, and depression were found to be negatively associated with gambling disorder symptom improvement, only recovery capital and spirituality re-Editor's Note. John M. Roll served as the action editor for this article.-TC This article was published Online First July 25, 2019.