Perceived emotional intelligence and its relation to tobacco and cannabis use among university students

The aim of this work has been to analyse the role of Perceived Emotional Intelligence (PEI) in the use of tobacco and cannabis in 133 psychology undergraduates (114 women and 19 men), all aged between 18 and 27, with a mean age of 21.52 yr. (SD= 5.42). PEI was assessed using an abbreviated version of the Trait Meta-Mood Scale (TMMS), developed by Salovey, Mayer, Goldman, Turvey and Palfai (1995) and adapted into Spanish by Fernández-Berrocal, Extremera, and Ramos (2004). The TMMS assesses an individual's ability to perceive, understand and manage emotion. The principal results obtained point to the fact that the students who consume tobacco or cannabis present lower levels of the Repair component of the TMMS and are those who started consuming tobacco or cannabis at an earlier age. On the other hand, Emotional Clarity appears to be related to the occasional consumption of cannabis, in that the students attaining high scores were those who consumed less. The Emotional Attention component of the TMMS is not involved in the consumption of these substances. These preliminary findings indicate the existing relationship between some components of the TMMS and the consumption of tobacco or cannabis. Nevertheless, we need to further investigate the differing implications of each one of the PEI components in the use of these substances.