Aim: Resistance is considered as a disturbing factor in the process of changing drug abusers. The purpose of this study was to determine the role of agency sense and alexithymia in prediction of resistance to change drug abusers.
Instruments and Methods: This descriptive correlational study was carried out in all drug abusers who were referred to treatment centers in Ardabil City, Iran, in the first half of 2016. Using clustered random sampling method, 140 samples were selected. The sense of agency rating, Toronto Alexithymia and resiliency scales were used for data collection. Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation test and multiple regression analysis.
Findings: Resistance to change had a significant negative correlation with agency sense involuntariness (r=-0.28; p<0.001) and a significant positive correlation with a general score of Alexithymia (r=-0.46; p<0.01), difficulty in emotion detection (r=-0.4; p<0.01), difficulty in describing emotions (r=-0.43; p<0.01) and focusing on external experiences (r=-0.47, p<0.01). 8% of the total variance in the resistance to change related to sense of agency (F=5.58; p<0.05) and 23% to Alexithymia (F=13.53; p<0.05) that among the factors of agency only involuntariness with variance of 30% (p=0.004; t=-2.89) and focusing on external experiences among of Alexithymia factors with variance of 40% (p=0.013; t=2.51) could predict the resistance to change.
Conclusion: The sense of agency and alexithymia are able to predict resistance to change of drug abusers.