On Thursday 8th February, SPRINT project member Dr Mary Quinton presented at the Campaign to End Loneliness international conference.Â
Mary’s research was one of four winners in the poster competition, which were selected for presenting innovative projects or research tackling loneliness and communicating this work in an engaging and accessible way.Â
The conference was attended by academics, organisations, applied practitioners, health professionals, members of the public, and the UK Minister for loneliness.Â
Keep reading to find out more about Mary's research, and the other research that was shared at the conference!
Here, Mary tells us about her experience of sharing her research at the conference, and an introduction to what the research is about:
"The conference was a great opportunity to present some initial findings from our research investigating loneliness, depressive symptoms, and emotion regulation strategies in student-athletes. Loneliness, especially in relation to mental health, is an under-researched area in sport psychology. We know student-athletes already use emotion regulation strategies. So, if we can promote more adaptive emotion regulation strategies, could this serve as a preventative measure for loneliness?"
The research described by Mary above is part of our broader interests in the SPRINT project around athlete mental health. You can read a section of Mary's winning poster below, which highlights why student-athletes are an important population to include when researching loneliness, and how emotion regulation could play an important role in understanding loneliness.
Image description: Photo of the first page of Mary's poster that she presented at the Campaign to End Loneliness international conference.
What other research was presented at the conference?
As well as the research from the SPRINT Project which focused on student-athletes and loneliness, the Campaign to End Loneliness international conference included lots of other exciting and innovative research on loneliness.
The topics included:
Who is most at risk for loneliness?Â
Loneliness inequalitiesÂ
Young people & lonelinessÂ
Loneliness through the built environmentÂ
Global response to lonelinessÂ
TechnologyÂ
The role of arts & creativityÂ
If you'd like to find out more about emotion regulation, you can read our blog here, where we explain the benefits of emotion regulation, how we can be more aware of our emotions and an example of an emotion regulation strategy.
Watch this space for more details about the SPRINT Project's research into student-athlete loneliness! If you would like to get in touch with us or subscribe to our content, simply fill in the short forms below.
Photo credit: Dr Mary Quinton
Written by Dr Mary Quinton, Assistant Professor in Sport & Exercise Psychology in the SPRINT Project.