The most robust finding was that recovery capital showed consistent and comparable protective effects for both women and men. In contrast, generalized social support had no effect, which suggests that recovery capital is a distinctively protective factor. Notably, recovery capital has been theorized to improve coping ability, which is particularly important given the biological, psychological, and social stressors encountered when ceasing alcohol use and developing a new, non-drinking social identity. Coping skills may be especially important during periods of increased stressors and uncertainty, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Consistent with other research, we conceptualized recovery capital as the set of individual attributes (e.g., lived experiences, self-efficacy) and interpersonal resources (e.g., social relationships, recovery-oriented cultural contexts) that a person may draw upon to initiate and maintain recovery from a substance use disorder—with or without use of treatment or other services. Our findings for the protective effects of recovery capital are consistent with this conceptualization and mirror previous reports of beneficial effects, notably that recovery capital is associated with decreased cravings (Sterling et al., 2008), improved treatment completion (Sánchez et al., 2020),
