A critical concept in the community psychology has been the sense of community. One of the better known instruments developed and evaluated to measure this construct is the Sense of Community Index (: Perkins, Florin, Rich, Wandersman, & Chavis, 1990). The present research examined the unidimensional 's measurement properties with an adult population ( = 662; age = 38.4) recovering from substance abuse and residing in Oxford House recovery residences. Overall, the exhibited sufficient reliability as a unidimensional instrument, but lacked reliability as a theoretical four factor model. It did, however, demonstrate an invariant 3 factor latent structure relating to (7 items), (3 items), and (2 items). Race was found to be associated with . In addition, was predictive of the likelihood of remaining a resident in Oxford House. The implications of these findings for the field of resilience are discussed.

The present study investigated the process of second-order change among a group of individuals recovering from substance abuse problems. Data were collected from 56 individuals who were current or past members of Oxford Houses, which are democratically operated recovery homes that have no professional staff and where there is no limit on length of stay. We collected data on individual and house demographics, per week involvement in the community, house involvement in the community, and types of community involvement while residing in the Oxford House. Findings reveal a significant positive relationship between the length of time living in an Oxford House and level of participant involvement in the community. Participants reported multiple factors that increased their community involvement and reported the type of impact that their involvement had on their neighborhoods. Findings from the present study indicate that not only do residents help themselves stay abstinent by living in the Oxford Houses, but residents report that they also make important contributions to their neighborhoods and communities.