An empirical conceptualization of the recovery orientation.

Objective: The recovery movement is having a growing impact on policy for people with severe mental illness. The empirical literature on the recovery orientation, however, is scant, and no empirical conceptualization of recovery has been published.

Method: We identified items reflecting recovery themes and measuring aspects of subjective experience, and used principle components and confirmatory factor analyses to develop an empirical conceptualization of the recovery orientation, using data from a large, systematic study of schizophrenia.