Paulina Baran

Background: Young athletes in weight-category sports such as judo may experience pressure related to body weight, which can be associated with unhealthy eating. Building on two earlier studies of young Polish judo athletes, this study examined whether ways of coping with stress, weight-related pressure from the social environment, and perceived availability of nutritional support are associated with abnormal eating behaviours. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 142 judo athletes aged 12–17 years (48 girls, 94 boys) completed questionnaires assessing eating behaviours (the Test of Eating Situation Style and the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire), coping with stress (the How Do You Cope? inventory, JSR), and a study-specific questionnaire on weight-related pressure and perceived availability of nutritional support. Results: Girls reported higher emotion-focused coping in several sex-by-age subgroup comparisons. After accounting for sex, age, and BMI-for-age z-score, coping styles and weight-related pressure were significantly associated with dietary restraint and emotional eating. Critical comments about an athlete’s weight or body shape and pressure to maintain a specific competition weight were among the most consistent the strongest predictors, whereas BMI-for-age z-score was not. Athletes who perceived broadly defined nutritional support as available reported less eating in response to external cues than those without such support. Conclusions: In this sample of young Polish judo athletes, weight-related comments and pressure, together with coping strategies, are associated with abnormal eating behaviours. Careful coach communication about weight, evaluation of structured nutritional-support provision, and coping-skills training are candidate prevention targets that should be tested in longitudinal and intervention studies.

Objectives: This study evaluated the validity and usefulness of selected indicators for assessing risky driving behavior in truck simulator research, which is critical for developing ecologically valid and reliable research methods in the domain of traffic safety and public health. The aims...

Introduction: Military cadets represent a distinct population in whom disordered eating behaviours may develop before exposure to the demands of operational military service. Data on orthorexia nervosa (ON) and emotional eating (EE) in this group remain scarce. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of ON and EE among cadets of the Military University of Technology (MUT) in Warsaw and to examine their associations with body mass index (BMI) and sex. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 783 MUT cadets (638 men, 145 women; mean age 20.7 ± 3.5 years) participating in the National Health Programme 2021–2025. ON risk was assessed using the ORTO-15 questionnaire, and EE was evaluated with the Emotional Eater Questionnaire (EEQ). Chi-square tests and binary logistic regression were performed to examine associations between ON risk and EE and the independent variables of sex, age, and BMI. Results: ON risk was identified in 35.0% of cadets and was not significantly associated with BMI or sex. EE was present in 10.6% of respondents and was significantly more prevalent among individuals with overweight or obesity compared to those with normal body weight (15.1% vs. 8.9%; p = 0.015) and among women compared to men (15.2% vs. 9.6%; p = 0.048). Logistic regression confirmed female sex (OR = 1.92) and overweight or obesity (OR = 1.95) as independent predictors of EE. No statistically significant differences in the prevalence of ON or EE were found between MUT cadets and previously studied Polish military flying personnel (p > 0.05). Conclusions: Disordered eating behaviours are present in military cadets at a scale comparable to that observed in experienced military personnel, suggesting that such patterns may already be present – or may emerge – during the early stages of a military career. As the study employed a cross-sectional design, causal inferences cannot be drawn, and longitudinal research is warranted; nonetheless, early identification of at-risk individuals within military educational settings may help prevent the progression of disordered eating into clinically significant disorders during active service. Hence, psychodietetic support and educational programmes targeting at-risk individuals should be considered from the outset of military education.

Judo, as a weight-category combat sport, exposes young athletes to body mass pressures that may foster abnormal eating behaviours. Building on a companion study that documented the prevalence and sex-specific characteristics of abnormal eating behaviours in this cohort, this secondary analysis aimed to identify training-related predictors of eating behaviours in young Polish judo athletes, examine body image satisfaction as a mediator, and assess whether patterns observed in elite adult athletes apply to younger populations. The participants were 150 athletes (70 girls, 80 boys) aged 12–17. Eating behaviours were assessed using the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ-13) and the Test of Eating Situation Style (TSJ); training characteristics, pre-competition weight control, and appearance satisfaction were examined through hierarchical regression, mediation analysis, latent profile analysis, and two-way ANOVA. Training-related factors—including tenure, session frequency, competitive level, and pre-competition weight control—showed no significant associations with eating behaviours. However, in a subsample of N = 136 athletes, relative weight grouping predicted dietary restraint (p = 0.015, η²p = 0.066), with athletes in the heaviest tertile reporting higher restriction; lower appearance satisfaction was associated with greater restraint (p = 0.031, β = −0.192), independently of sport-mandated weight control; females demonstrated higher emotional eating across instruments (p < 0.001). These findings suggest that body image and weight classification may be more strongly associated with eating behaviours than training demands, highlighting the need for body image interventions and the monitoring of athletes near weight category boundaries.

Traffic violations represent a significant public health concern, with professional drivers substantially impacting road safety. This pilot study compared self-report questionnaires (general personality versus domain-specific), performance-based tests, and driving simulator measures to determine which assessment method best predicts traffic offences among professional truck drivers. Participants (N = 27) completed the Impulsiveness–Venturesomeness–Empathy Questionnaire (IVE), the Road Traffic Behaviours Questionnaire (KZD), and the Vienna Risk-Taking Test Traffic (WRBTV) and performed standardised driving scenarios in a truck simulator. Performance was assessed using speed variations in five validated decision-making situations. Drivers were classified into two groups based on relatively higher and relatively lower numbers of self-reported traffic offences. The KZD demonstrated the strongest group differentiation (p = 0.034, d = 0.76). Simulator performance was significantly different between the groups (p = 0.033, d = −0.68), with offence-reporting drivers showing smaller speed reductions. The WRBTV and the IVE empathy subscale approached significance (p = 0.056 and p = 0.059, respectively). Higher empathy characterised offence-free drivers, suggesting social–emotional factors may contribute to traffic safety. General impulsiveness and venturesomeness showed no group differences. The results indicate that domain-specific questionnaires and behavioural assessments offer superior predictive validity compared to general personality measures for identifying potentially unsafe drivers. ROC analysis revealed moderate predictive validity across significant measures (AUC: 0.64–0.70), with differential patterns of sensitivity and specificity among predictors. The findings suggest implementing tiered screening approaches using domain-specific questionnaires as initial cost-effective tools, followed by simulator assessment for at-risk drivers, enabling transport companies and regulatory bodies to identify high-risk drivers proactively.

Depression represents a major global mental health challenge, yet protective factors that enhance resilience against depressive symptoms remain insufficiently understood. This two-wave longitudinal study examined prospective relationships between personality traits, spiritual fitness dimensions, positive mental health, and depressive symptoms in Polish adults over six months, determining their relative contributions and investigating mediational pathways. A total of 385 participants completed baseline assessments, with 158 completing six-month follow-up. The combined model explained 41.4% of variance in depressive symptoms. Positive mental health emerged as the strongest protective factor, demonstrating substantially larger effects than individual personality traits. Among personality dimensions, emotional stability, conscientiousness, and extraversion showed significant protective associations. Spiritual fitness dimensions revealed differential patterns: pursuing meaning, purpose, and value demonstrated significant protective effects, suggesting that active meaning-making buffers against depression. However, personal connection to a higher power showed an unexpected positive association with depressive symptoms, possibly reflecting spiritual struggles, reactive seeking during distress, or tensions navigating religious transitions in contemporary Polish society. Service orientation showed no significant direct effects. Longitudinal mediation analysis, controlling for baseline depression, revealed that positive mental health at follow-up significantly mediated the relationship between protective personality traits and depressive symptoms, accounting for 41% of personality’s total protective effect. These findings demonstrate that positive mental health represents a more potent protective resource than stable personality traits and serves as a key mechanism linking personality to depression outcomes, while highlighting the complexity of spirituality-mental health relationships. Results suggest that interventions targeting modifiable positive mental health resources and meaning-making may offer efficient pathways to depression prevention.

Considering the statistics of road accidents worldwide, the study of drivers' risk behavior is important from both a road safety and public health perspective. The aim of this paper is to present a research design to investigate truck drivers' risky behavior on the road in a simulated traffic environment, based on our experience with a car driving simulator study.. The proposed research scheme was tested in a pilot study involving 30 professional male truck drivers (aged 30-62 years, M = 41.67; SD = 7.8) recruited using a convenience sampling method from various transport companies. The truck simulator, owned by the Military Institute of Aviation Medicine (WIML), was used in the study. The paper describes the procedure of the study, including the principles of designing driving scenarios, as well as the method of acquiring data from the simulator and preparing it for further statistical analysis and substantive interpretation of the results. The study of risky driving behavior, according to the research design adopted, has revealed the main challenges of using a virtual environment to simulate different driving events and make assessments of drivers' behavior in response to given stimuli. Therefore, the paper discusses the key issues related to conducting studies on drivers' risk behavior using a virtual environment and also includes some suggestions on research design to take into consideration.

Introduction and objective: Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) often co-occurs with multiple comorbidities. The aim of the study is to examine whether stress mediates the relationship between comorbidity burden and psychological functioning in OSA patients, and whether optimism moderates these...