A Synthesis of Evidence of The Unique Psychosocial Challenges Faced By Quebec’s English Speaking Black Communities During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The McGill Human Motivation Lab and the Black Community Resource Center (BCRC) have collaborated on 8 research studies over the last two years to examine the resilience of Quebec English-speaking Black communities in the face of the greatest public health crisis in a century. Our results uncovered numerous important themes, such as how involvement in the BLM movement allowed Black young adults to recover from the social isolation imposed by the pandemic, how it was particularly Black women who assumed leadership roles despite having been especially burdened by the pandemic, and how social support from both family and friends were importantly related to young adults’ psychological adjustment. More recently, with funding provided by the Health Care Access for Linguistic Minorities Network, we conducted studies that compared members of Quebec’s English and French-speaking Black communities and found significant group differences in important real-life outcomes such as experiences of discrimination, barriers to physical and mental health care, and hesitancy regarding vaccination for the COVID-19 virus.

Across all studies, English-speaking Black communities struggled more than French-speaking Black communities. We propose to synthesize these findings into a single cohesive knowledge translation effort that can be used to prepare workshops, presentations, technical reports, publications, web-based tools, school curricula, and webinars. Our partnership with the BCRC will support the development of these educational and community-building events. Highlighting the unique challenges of English-speaking Black communities is critically important as this community faces a Quebec government that intends to use the not-withstanding clause to pass laws that will restrict English language rights in many spheres of Quebec life. Such language restrictions are likely to have devastating impacts on the health and vitality of English-speaking Black communities. These laws will also weaken the natural alliance that exists between the English and French-speaking Black communities. The purpose of this knowledge translation will be to increase community awareness of unique barriers of accessing health care and social services faced by Quebec’s English-speaking Black communities. It will contribute to improving access to resources and evidence-based information on the status and needs of the English-speaking Black communities.

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Outcomes:

• Lafreniere, B., Audet, É. C., Kachanoff, F., Christophe, N. K., Holding, A. C., Janusauskas, L., & Koestner, R. (2023). Gender differences in perceived racism threat and activism during the Black Lives Matter social justice movement for Black young adults. Journal of community psychology, 51(7), 2741–2757. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.23043

• Nweze, N., Davids, J., Fang, X., Holding, A., & Koestner, R. (2023). The Impact of Language on the Mental Health of Black Quebecers. Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities, 10(5), 2327–2337. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-022-01412-5

• 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

Project Extension | Are language and motivational barriers limiting healthcare access for Black young adults during the COVID-19 pandemic?

One-year extension of a previously funded project. See here.

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Outcomes:

• Lafreniere, B., Audet, É. C., Kachanoff, F., Christophe, N. K., Holding, A. C., Janusauskas, L., & Koestner, R. (2023). Gender differences in perceived racism threat and activism during the Black Lives Matter social justice movement for Black young adults. Journal of community psychology, 51(7), 2741–2757. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.23043

• Nweze, N., Davids, J., Fang, X., Holding, A., & Koestner, R. (2023). The Impact of Language on the Mental Health of Black Quebecers. Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities, 10(5), 2327–2337. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-022-01412-5

• Audet, É.C., Leboeuf, J., Holding, A.C. et al. Better Together: Family and Peer Support for Black Young Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Black Lives Matter Movement. Trends in Psychology. 1-18, 688–705 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43076-022-00157-8

• 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

Do Language Barriers Impact COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy among Quebec Visible Minority Groups?

Language barriers are an important obstacle when it comes to vaccination and may even result in a lack of access to COVID-19 information. The prospect of new waves of COVID-19 infections poses a special risk to English-speaking visible minority communities across Quebec due to the increased levels of infection and death. Visible minorities bore the brunt of the first waves of the pandemic, and evidence suggests that they have high levels of vaccine hesitancy. Vaccine hesitancy is characterized by a lack of confidence in vaccination and/or complacency about vaccination. Black and other visible minority communities have shown greater hesitancy towards vaccinations compared to their white counterparts and receive significantly fewer vaccine doses. We will conduct a 3-wave, prospective, longitudinal study (over a 10-month period) that examines linguistic and motivational factors that impact the readiness of visible minority young adults to get COVID19 vaccines. The study represents an ongoing collaboration of the McGill Human Motivation Laboratory and the Black Community Resource Center (BCRC). The BCRC serves as the secretariat for 14 community agencies that provide services to English-speaking visible minority groups. A novel component of this research is that it will examine how young adults process and respond to public health information intended to promote vaccinations(e.g., emphasis on visibility, relatability, and equity). Both language minority status and visible minority status are expected to be associated with response to these communications. We will develop empirically based resources for Black and visible minority young adults to promote autonomous motivation and positive attitudes about vaccination.

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Outputs:

• Lafreniere, B., Audet, É. C., Kachanoff, F., Christophe, N. K., Holding, A. C., Janusauskas, L., & Koestner, R. (2023). Gender differences in perceived racism threat and activism during the Black Lives Matter social justice movement for Black young adults. Journal of Community Psychology. 10.1002/jcop.23043

• Nweze, N., Davids, J., Fang, X., Holding, A., & Koestner, R. (2023). The Impact of Language on the Mental Health of Black Quebecers. Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, 1-11. 10.1007/s40615-022-01412-5

• Audet, É. C., Leboeuf, J., Holding, A. C., Davids, J., Fang, X., & Koestner, R. (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, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43076-022-00157-8

• 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. 10.1002/jcop.22929

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.

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Outputs:

1. 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

2. 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