Background: The long-term consumption of junk food products can lead to nutritional and metabolic imbalances, especially when it is associated with a lack of physical activity and the consumption of alcohol or other high-calorie products. Methods: The evaluation of junk food consumption among teenagers and young people in Romania was carried out with the help of a cross-sectional study based on a questionnaire. Results: A total number of 1017 respondents participated in this study, comprising 470 males and 547 females aged between 16 and 25 years. Although the majority of young people fell into the normal-weight category (607 of them, p < 0.0001), some aspects can be noted that in the long term can produce a series of nutritional imbalances: an increased tendency toward sedentarism, with 553 (p = 0.613) of the respondents declaring that they performed sports rarely or not at all, and a tendency toward relatively high consumption of foods high in calories (fast food products and especially fried potatoes, hamburgers, shawarma, pastries, and snacks, along with sweetened drinks and even alcoholic beverages). The respondents participating in this study even indicated a perceived addiction to the consumption of certain products: coffee (50.48%), fried potatoes (38.9%), hamburgers (37.05%), shawarma (31.65%), and snacks (30.08%). Many of these products are rich in calories, saturated fat, and even trans fat. Conclusions: This study highlights a series of aspects that can have long-term negative effects related to the excess weight associated with other imbalances: consumption preferences among young people for hypercaloric fast food products, sweetened drinks associated with reduced physical activity, and even the development of some forms of food addictions for a series of hypercaloric foods.

An evaluation of the behavioral risk factors that contribute to the incidence and evolution of cancer in oncology patients was conducted through a cross-sectional study using a questionnaire completed by 206 patients (101 men and 105 women) diagnosed with various types of cancer. These patients were selected from different oncology centers in Romania, located in Bucharest and Constanta. Among the respondents, 91 are of normal weight, 12 are underweight, 62 are overweight, and 41 are obese, with overweight individuals predominating (p = 0.799). Regarding the presence of behavioral risk factors that can aggravate oncological pathology, it is found that 10 respondents consume alcohol daily, 36 consume it weekly with varying frequencies (p = 0.012), 26 respondents smoke excessively daily, and 12 respondents smoke 1–2 cigarettes daily (p = 0.438). Additionally, 40 respondents rarely engage in physical activity, and 71 respondents do not engage in physical activity at all as they do not typically participate in sports (p = 0.041). Thus, respondents with colon cancer tend to consume sweets, pastries and even fast food or fried foods more often, while the daily consumption of vegetables and fruits is insufficient, according to the recommendations of nutrition guidelines (a minimum of four portions per day). The analysis found that smoking and excessive alcohol consumption were associated with an increased incidence of lung and liver cancer. The lack of regular physical activity was identified as a risk factor for breast and colon cancer. An unhealthy diet, characterized by a low consumption of fruits and vegetables and high intake of processed foods, was correlated with a higher incidence of colorectal cancer. Additionally, non-adherence to medical advice was associated with poorer clinical outcomes and faster disease progression. The majority of respondents who declared that they did not feel an improvement in their state of health in the last period were among those who stated that they did not fully comply with the oncologist’s recommendations. Identifying and modifying behavioral risk factors can play a crucial role in cancer prevention and in improving the prognosis and quality of life of cancer patients.

Acceptance of the self, others and the environment is a force for personal change that has its origins in many eastern and western cultures. The benefits of accepting are described by many cultures through religious literatures (New Testament, Tao Te Ching, Buddhist Scriptures, Bhagavad Gita or "The Divine Song", Yoga Sutras of Patañjali), philosophical (Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, Keirkegaard, Krishnamurti, Lao Tzu, Watts), as well as in other various literary forms such as romance (Austen), modernism (Nabok), realism (Tolstoy), poetry or theater (Shakespeare). Acceptance requires a person to tolerate experiences as given; otherwise, simply someone will only pursue pleasure, run away from pain and be prone to judge experiences. The Stoics (Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, Seneca) appreciated the ability to tolerate or willingly resist experiences, because it increases the degree of self-control, of detachment without emotion and develops indifference to pleasure and pain. Since acceptance involves contact with reality as it is at a certain moment, it is necessary to be able to remain present and aware even when the available stimuli are less desirable. Consequently, tolerance can be considered a skill through which we can remain present and experience anything that happens completely.

This study aimed to explore the impact of the first two waves of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental and physical states of sports students from Romania and also to compare the differences according to gender and the type of sport. Initially, in order to collect demographic data and health reports, a cross-sectional survey was developed to evaluate the emotional needs of sports students during the pandemic. After the second wave, the coping strategies used by the participants to fight negative emotions were assessed using the CERQ questionnaire. The results indicate that depression symptoms are the most reported psychological issues among the participants and that there are differences according to gender concerning the cognitive schemas they use in order to reduce the symptoms. Also, it was found that there are differences, corresponding to the type of sport, in choosing adaptive coping mechanisms. Ultimately, it was confirmed that higher levels of hopelessness among sports students are associated with increased vulnerability to substance use, with the correlation between those two indicators being strong. Delving deeper into this relationship can help identify critical points for intervention to prevent substance abuse. At the same time, the dichotomic analysis of the results found as moderators—the gender and the type of sport in decreasing the severity of depression could be an important aspect of the next counseling interventions.

Nowadays, anxiety is a growing phenomenon because people come across more and more stressful situations. Therefore, among its different forms of manifestation, there is social anxiety. This type of anxiety generally starts in adolescence, when personality is still shaping up and when teenagers are more and more interested in getting confirmation from others. When he is analyzed by others, a teenager fears failure and being ashamed when things are not the way they should, he fears being judged by others for possible small mistakes and, thus, anxiety appears. In other words, persons with low self-confidence and lacking confidence in their abilities have low self-esteem and can easily develop a form of anxiety. As we have already mentioned, social anxiety is caused by the fear of being criticized by others, by the fear of being improperly evaluated, by the feeling of being ashamed, of being in the presence of unknown persons, etc. All these social contexts are backgrounds for individuals’ unexplainable restlessness that can lead to physical symptoms such as excessive perspiration, trembling, palpitations, blushing etc. Self-esteem is very important here as it is very important how the subject sees himself or herself in the social situation. Thus, if a person feels unable to deal with situations considered difficult and if there is lack of confidence in her/his own abilities, meaning he/she has low self-esteem, it is highly possible that this behaviour lead to the debut of social anxiety. Therapy sessions help reduce and even eliminate this disturbance. There are certain techniques consisting of facing the problems up to the moment where the subject begins feeling comfortable with normal life aspects which used to be considered anxiety episodes.

Introduction: In the context of the increasing frequency and intensity of climate-related natural disasters, identifying the psychological mechanisms that support adaptive functioning has become a critical research priority. Psychological resilience is conceptualized as a dynamic, context-dependent adaptive process shaped by cognitive appraisals of risk, regulatory cognitive mechanisms, and prior disaster experience. The present study examined the relationship between risk perception and psychological resilience by testing the mediating role of cognitive resilience and the conditional influence of prior disaster experience and hazard type. Methods: The sample consisted of 172 higher-education teachers from Romania, predominantly from the Dobrogea region. Data were collected using the psychometrically validated Resilience to Natural Disasters Questionnaire (α = 0.79–0.89). Conditional process analyses were conducted in SPSS (v.28) using PROCESS Models 1, 4, and 7, with 5,000 bootstrap resamples, to test mediation, moderation, and moderated mediation effects. Results: Cognitive resilience significantly mediated the relationship between risk perception and psychological resilience, with the magnitude of the indirect effect varying as a function of hazard type. The indirect effect of prior disaster experience through cognitive resilience remained consistent across hazard contexts. Cognitive mediation was stronger in contexts characterized by higher unpredictability (fires) than in more controllable situations (floods). Heightened cognitive activation was associated with lower levels of psychological resilience, suggesting a compensatory mechanism under conditions of elevated threat. Prior disaster experience further shaped the strength of these associations across models. Discussion: The findings support a processual and context-sensitive model of psychological resilience, highlighting the dynamic interplay between risk perception, cognitive regulation, experiential factors, and situational characteristics. These results provide an empirical foundation for differentiated post-disaster psychological interventions tailored to individuals' cognitive and experiential profiles.