Dr Mary Quinton BSc, PhD

Dr Mary Quinton

School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences
Assistant Professor in Sport and Exercise Psychology

Contact details

Email
m.quinton@bham.ac.uk
Twitter
@Mary_q6
View my research portal
Address
School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dr Quinton is interested in how positive youth development approaches in sport and community settings improve emotional regulation, social connectedness, and mental well-being in young people. Dr Quinton uses sport psychology and pedagogical theories to understand how young people’s backgrounds and support needs influence their development, engagement, and motivation to learn and perform in different settings (e.g., sport, university, and homelessness).

Biography

Dr Quinton completed her PhD (“Investigating the effects of positive and negative imagery content and ability on cognitive, affective, and behavioural outcomes”) at the University of Birmingham. She went on to become the operational lead of the My Strengths Training for Life (MST4Life)™ programme within a local youth homeless charity – translating sport psychology techniques to develop a range of skills such as self-confidence, resilience, and well-being and facilitate young people’s progression into education, employment or training. Through this role, Dr Quinton has developed extensive experience in evaluating complex interventions with people who have complex and multiple needs, particularly using mixed methods data to provide robust evidence to policy makers and programme commissioners. Dr Quinton wrote a policy briefing for the project which attracted interest of senior advisors in the policy unit at 10 Downing Street.

Teaching

Dr Quinton leads a large first year Sport, Exercise and Health Psychology module and also contributes to the second year Sport and Performance Psychology module. Dr Quinton is also currently Year 1 Tutor and chairs the Staff-Student Forum meetings.

Postgraduate supervision

Georgia Bird (Economic and Social Research Council PhD student 2019-2023: Athletes’ emotion regulation and mental health)

Research

Research interests:

Mental skills training, positive youth development, imagery

Publications

Quinton, M. L., Clarke, F. J., Parry, B. J., & Cumming, J. (2021). An evaluation of My Strengths Training for Life™ for improving resilience and well-being of young people experiencing homelessness. Journal of Community Psychology. DOI:10.1002/jcop.22517

Williams, S. E., Quinton, M. L., Veldhuijzen van Zanten, J. J. C. S., Davies, J., Mӧller, C., Trotman, G. P., & Ginty, A. (2021). Mastery imagery ability is associated with positive anxiety and performance during psychological stress. Frontiers in Psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.568580

Parry, B. J., Thompson, J. T., Holland, M. J. G., Quinton, M. L., & Cumming, J. (2020). Improving outcomes in young people experiencing homelessness with My Strengths Training for Life™ (MST4Life™): A qualitative realist evaluation. Children and Youth Services Review, 121, 105793. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105793

 

Quinton, M. L., Veldhuijzen van Zanten, J. J. C. S., Trotman, G. P., Cumming, J., & Williams, S. E. (2019). Investigating the protective role of mastery imagery ability in buffering debilitative stress responses. Frontiers in Psychology. Advanced online publication: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01657

 

Cooley, S. J., Quinton, M. L., Holland, M. J. G., Parry, B. J., & Cumming, J. (2019). The experiences of homeless youth when using strengths profiling to identify their character strengths. Frontiers in Psychology. Advanced online publication: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02036

 

Trotman, G. P., Williams, S. E., Quinton, M. L., & Veldhuijzen van Zanten, J. J. C. S. (2018). Challenge and threat states: Examining cardiovascular, cognitive and affective responses to two distinct laboratory stress tasks. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 126, 42-51. doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2018.02.004

 

Quinton, M. L., Cumming, J., & Williams, S. E. (2018). Investigating the mediating role of positive and negative imagery ability. Psychology of Sport & Exercise, 35, 1-9. doi:10.1016/j.psychsport.2017.10.011.

 

Williams, S. E., Veldhuijzen van Zanten, J. J. C. S., Trotman, G. P., Quinton, M. L., & Ginty, A. T. (2017). Challenge and threat imagery manipulates heart rate and anxiety responses to stress. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 117, 111-118. doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2017.04.011

 

Quinton, M. L., Cumming, J., Allsop, J., Gray, R., & Williams, S. E. (2016). Imagery meaning and content in golf: Effects on performance, anxiety, and confidence. International Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology. Advanced online publication. doi:10.1080/1612197X.2016.1242150

 

Cumming, J., Cooley, S. J., Anuar, N.  A., Kosteli, M. C., Quinton, M. L., & Williams, S. E. (2016). Developing imagery ability effectively: A guide to layered stimulus response training. Journal of Sport Psychology in Action. Advanced online publication. doi:10.1080/21520704.2016.1205698

 

Quinton, M. L., Cumming, J., Gray, R., Geeson, J., Crowley, H., Cooper, A., & Williams, S. E. (2014). A PETTLEP imagery intervention with young athletes. Journal of Imagery Research in Sport and Physical Activity, 9, 47-60. doi:10.1515/jirspa-2014-0003

View all publications in research portal

Expertise

Sport psychology; mental health; mental skills; mental techniques; imagery or visualization; emotion regulation