The Impact of Language on the Mental Health of Black Quebecers

The authors note that Quebec’s English-speaking Black community finds itself at the intersection of racial and linguistic discrimination, which presents challenges to mental wellness. Their study aims to add necessary detail to the conversations surrounding racism and mental health in the province while including language as a determinant of health and intersecting element affecting the wellbeing of English-speaking Black Quebecers. The authors recruited 531 Black adults who are currently living in Quebec to complete a survey on various community-relevant items, including their mental and physical health, their experiences of discrimination, and barriers to accessing mental healthcare. Their analyses revealed that English-speaking participants experience more discrimination across all types and report more barriers to mental healthcare and lower mental health than their French-speaking counterparts. Furthermore, the authors found that language also had a mediated effect on mental health through discrimination and barriers to mental healthcare. The authors point out that their study adds to the sparse race-based and intersectional literature about Black people in Canada and substantiates a mechanism by which language affects mental health by exposing Black Quebecers to more discrimination and thus higher barriers to care.

Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities

2023

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