A latent profile analysis of personal recovery in people with serious mental illness: an application of the Connectedness, Hope, Identity, Meaning, Empowerment, and Difficulties (CHIME-D) framework

An individual with a serious mental illness (SMI) can live “a satisfying, hopeful, and contributing life even with limitations caused by illness” (Anthony, 1993, p. 15). Such an idea underscores the process of personal recovery. Researchers have proposed that Connectedness, Hope and optimism about the future, Identity, Meaning in life, Empowerment, and Difficulties (CHIME-D) forms the framework that represents the personal recovery process (Leamy et al., 2011; Stuart et al., 2017). Accordingly, researchers have called for quantitative research to investigate the relationship between recovery stage models and components of the CHIME-D framework. The purpose of this dissertation study was to create profile groups based on the psychosocial characteristics of people with SMI in different stages of the personal recovery process. Two hundred ninety-four adults with SMI completed an online survey that consisted of demographic information and established measures. Each participant was assigned to one of five mutually exclusive profile groups based on their response patterns. Each profile generated was linked to one of the five stages of recovery identified by Andresen et al. (2003). Demographic variables, including marital status, employment status, secondary SMI diagnosis, and average number of hours worked per week, were found to predict profile membership. Significant differences were found among the profiles for both subjective well-being and personal recovery. These findings extend our understanding of the personal recovery process, support the development of evidence-based recovery-oriented practices for people with SMI, and establish preliminary empirical support for using the CHIME-D framework to examine personal recovery in a multidimensional and comprehensive manner.