A mixed-methods comparative study identifying the social and health trajectories of young adults during and following the COVID-19 pandemic in France and in Canada – FOCUS Study

Young adults (aged 18-29) experience severe economic, psychological and associated social and health consequences from the COVID-19 pandemic. To advance evidence and to inform adaptive social, economic and public health responses, we are proposing to supplement our on-going multi-site mixed-methods study. Our research proposal called “Assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on social and health outcomes among young people: A mixed-method comparative analysis in Canada and France”.

The proposed one-year objectives of our project are to:
1. Characterize the perceptions and experiences of young adults with the COVID-19-related public health measures including vaccine willingness and coping strategies towards mental health in France and Canada in the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
2. Identify how evolving COVID-19-related public health measures (between the first and second year of the COVID-19 pandemic) are associated with behavioural and psychosocial trajectories among young adults in France and Canada.
3. Document and identify health, social, and structural interventions that optimize positive health and social outcomes in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
To respond to these objectives, we will conduct a multi-site concurrent mixed-methods study including both quantitative and qualitative methods.
Objective 1 will be addressed by conducting cross-sectional analyses using the data collected during the second online FOCUS survey (Wave 2) with the aim to reach 8000 participants to describe the perceptions and experiences of young adults with COVID-19 associated public health measures including vaccination willingness and uptake as well as preventive and coping strategies.
Objective 2 will be accomplished by performing longitudinal analyses using the data from the first (Wave 1) and second FOCUS surveys (Wave 2) to generate new data that will inform interventions (including services, policies and programs) that address young adult health and social well-being during and following the COVID-19 pandemic. To assess behavioral and psychosocial changes over time during the first 18-months of the COVID-19 pandemic, our analysis sample will include participants who completed the two FOCUS surveys (Wave 1 and Wave 2). A total of 3000 young adults from the first online survey (i.e., 35% of the overall sample) agreed to participate in the second wave.
To respond to Objective 3, we will first conduct in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 30 young adults to document how they understand and experience the COVID-19 pandemic and their economic, psychological and associated social and health consequences. To do so, we will recruit 30 youth ages 18-29 in Canada (15 in Vancouver and 15 in Montréal) and 30 in France (15 in Paris and 15 in Bordeaux). In order to explore how various interventions that seek to improve youth health and social well-being in the context of COVID-19 are adapting, we will also conduct in-depth, semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders (n=10 in each setting to explore how programs are adapting to COVID-19 (e.g., the provision of virtual care), with a particular focus on identifying how various levels of interventions (e.g., national and federal assistance programs; local services/programs) are impacting youth health and social well-being.
Our aim is to generate new context-sensitive and population-specific data to document how policy and program responses can be optimized to improve the lives of young adults in two key international settings: France and Canada. While both France and Canada share some commonalities (e.g., high-income countries, publicly funded health care systems), there are many important contextual differences (e.g., severity and evolution of national and regional COVID-19 curves, economic support/employment insurance programs, community-based responses) that will benefit from empirical investigation as they relate to youth population health.