Are language and motivational barriers limiting healthcare access for Black young adults during the Covid-19 Pandemic?
Health care access during the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in Canada may be especially problematic for Black young adults who are a linguistic minority in their province. Studies have found marked disparities in access to health care among official language minorities in Quebec (Falconer & Quesnel-Valee, 2014). Intersectionality theory suggests that the combination of marginalized identities could make it uniquely difficult for Black anglophone Quebecers (and Black francophone Ontarians) to feel empowered to seek access health care. A 3-wave prospective longitudinal study will examine linguistic and motivational factors that may undermine the readiness of Black young adults to seek access to health care during the coming fall and winter. The study will assess the extent to which participants have experienced autonomy-support in their interactions with health-care providers and how this relates to their motivation to adhere to public health guidelines regarding the pandemic (e.g., hand-hygiene, social-distancing, wearing masks) and influence the pursuit of health care information and health care access. Researchers will also examine whether the motivational factors interact with linguistic minority status in determining how young adults adapt to the challenge of living through the worst pandemic in a century.
Outputs:
Audet, É. C., Thai, H., Holding, A. C., Davids, J., Fang, X., & Koestner, R. (2023). The depth of stories: How Black young adults' disclosure of high arousal negative affect in narratives about the COVID-19 pandemic and the BLM protests improved adjustment over the year 2020. Journal of Community Psychology, 51(4), 1504–1517. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.22929
Audet, É.C., Leboeuf, J., Holding, A.C. et al. (2022). Better together: Family and peer support for black young adults during the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement. Trends in Psychology. 30, 688–705. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43076-022-00157-8