COVID-19 Variant Supplement - 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 [Added supplement: COVID-19 Variant Supplement]

Youth (<30 years) are among the most at risk for longer-term social and health consequences due to COVID-19-related public health measures (e.g., physical distancing) and the associated social and economic impacts, including unemployment, as well as isolation from their social networks and disruption to their education during key periods of the early life course. To advance evidence and to inform adaptive social, economic and public health responses among youth, we are prepared to rapidly launch a one-year multi-site mixed-methods study. 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 youth in two key international settings: Canada and France. While both Canada and France 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. We will conduct a multi-site concurrent mixed-methods study that includes: (i) a series of longitudinal qualitative research activities including semi-structured interviews with youth from across different jurisdictions in Canada (n=30) and France (n=30); (ii) interviews with key stakeholders (n=10 in each setting); and (iii) two national online cross-sectional surveys in both Canada and France with youth (at 6-month intervals). Throughout the duration of the proposed study we will engage in integrated knowledge translation and exchange (KTE) activities to systematically engage in rapid-cycle evaluation and advance actionable findings, including findings that are of relevance to national, federal and local policies and programs that can have an impact on youth social and health outcomes.