A quantitative, descriptive and exploratory research, with a cross-sectional design aimed at examining the moderating effect of certain sociocultural factors related to drug use among university students in San José, Costa Rica. The sample was composed of 126 women and 124 men from a public university. A questionnaire was developed with 5 validated scales that interrogated about the influence of the peer group, the family relationships, the entertainment, the spirituality, and drug consumption. The SPSS ver 18 software was used for the statistical analysis. It was found that 98.4% of students had at least one friend who is drug consumer, most of them use alcohol, tobacco and marijuana. A significant association between some academic and sociocultural factors and the consumption of licit and illicit drugs was established. We concluded that some preventive strategies should be elaborated considering the influence of sociocultural factors among college students.
Street drugs; University; Family; Spirituality