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This article explores the relationships between certain cognitive and emotional factors (sensation seeking, impulsivity, self-esteem, anxiety sensitivity and loneliness) and regular consumption of alcohol and other drugs by a university population from Almeria (South Spain). During 2005 and 2006 students were given a battery of questionnaires related to these personality variables and the substances they had consumed. After filling out the psychometric tests, the participants gave a urine sample which was then analyzed. The findings stress the role of sensation seeking and loneliness, understood as social maladjustment, in the regular consumption of alcohol and other drugs, in both men and women.

The purpose of this work was to determine the validity of a self-report on recent drug use (cocaine and cannabis) in a sample of university students of both sexes and to explore the role of attitudes toward substance use as related to this report. The subjects (506) were volunteers aged 17-35 years (who received an economic incentive) recruited at the University of Almería (Spain). The results were analyzed on the basis of correspondence between the self-report of recent use and a urine test. Three logistic regression analyses between self-reported use and attitudes toward drugs were also performed. The results show that the convergent validity of the self-report of drug use and the urine test is quite satisfactory, with percentages of agreement varying from .89 to .98 and Kappa of .66 and .56 for cannabis and cocaine, respectively. Sensitivity of the self-report is 57.1% (cocaine) and 91.8% (cannabis), and specificity is 99.4% (cocaine) and 89.6% (cannabis). The differences found in correspondence between the two substances are discussed with regard to self-reported attitudes on drug use.