The recovery framework has found its way into local and national mental health services and policies around the world, especially in English speaking countries. To promote this process, it is necessary to assess personal recovery validly and reliably. The Recovery Assessment Scale (RAS) is the most established measure in recovery research. The aim of the current study is to examine the factor structure of the German version of the RAS (RAS-G).

One hundred and fifty-six German-speaking clients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder from a community mental health service completed the RAS-G plus measures of recovery attitudes, self-stigma, psychotic symptoms, depression, and functioning. A confirmatory factor analysis of the original 24-item RAS version was conducted to examine its factor structure, followed by reliability and validity testing of the extracted factors.

The CFA yielded five factors capturing 14 items which showed a substantial overlap with the original subscales Personal Confidence and Hope, Goal and Success Orientation, Willingness to Ask for Help, Reliance on Others, and No Domination by Symptoms. The factors demonstrated mean to excellent reliability (0.59–0.89) and satisfactory criterial validity by positive correlations with measures of recovery attitudes and functioning, and negative correlations with measures of self-stigma, and psychotic and depressive symptoms.

The study results are discussed in the light of other studies examining the factor structure of the RAS. Overall, they support the use of the RAS-G as a means to promote recovery oriented services, policies, and research in German-speaking countries.