We use the fixed alternative theorem to establish Hyers-Ulam-Rassias stability of the quadratic functional equation where functions map a linear space into a complete quasi p-normed space. Moreover, we will show that the continuity behavior of an approximately quadratic mapping, which is controlled by a suitable continuous function, implies the continuity of a unique quadratic function, which is a good approximation to the mapping. We also give a few applications of our results in some special cases.