This qualitative research aimed at identifying conceptions held by undergraduate students regarding the term motivation, and motives leading them to the consumption of legal drugs. Data were collected through a questionnaire with four open questions, applied to 15 students of a public university in the central region of Mexico. In order to perform the data analysis, answers were classified in two categories: a) Undergraduate students' conceptions regarding the term motivation and b) Undergraduate students' conceptions regarding the motives for consumption. Such analysis indicated that students identify two types of motivations: external and internal. The external motivation includes family, mass media and friends; whereas internal motivation includes personal characteristics, need of belonging, curiosity, pleasure and idleness.
motivation; student; students, nursing
