Perceptions de groupes, profils identitaires collectifs et bien-être psychologique : la perspective des jeunes Acadiens du sud-est du Nouveau-Brunswick1

Abstract

(Taylor, 1997;2002) sont mis à l'épreuve dans le but d'examiner les réponses au désavantage social des adolescents d'origine acadienne. En tout, 36 adolescents acadiens du sud-est du Nouveau-Brunswick ont participé à une entrevue semi-dirigée. Selon les résultats, les participants portent un fardeau d'infériorité par rapport aux francophones du Québec. Différents discours sont entretenus concernant les anglophones et engendrent six profils identitaires différents. Les résultats confirment la diversité de l'influence des exogroupes majoritaires sur le cheminement identitaire collectif des jeunes Acadiens. De plus, l'analyse révèle que les jeunes issus du profil nommé bilingue à orientation anglophone éprouvent des difficultés quant à leur bien-être psychologique.Mots clés : profils identitaires collectifs, bien-être psychologique, adolescents d'origine acadienne. AbstractAcadians from the South-East region of New Brunswick are confronted with assimilation pressures from Anglophones 212 Revue de l'Université de Moncton, vol. 41, n o 1, 2010 and the demands of a French standard. The rejectionidentification model (Branscombe, Schmitt, and Harvey, 1999) and the self concept model (Taylor, 1997(Taylor, , 2002 are tested in order to examine how adolescents of Acadian heritage respond to social disadvantage. Overall, 36 Acadian adolescents from the South-East region of New Brunswick participated in a semi-structured interview. Participants expressed a burden of inferiority next to Francophones from Québec. Different views were expressed concerning attitudes towards Anglophones that resulted in six identity profiles.Results supported the influence of majority out-groups on the collective identity trajectory of Acadian youth. In addition, the analysis revealed that youth who have reported a bilingual with an English orientation profile were more likely to experience difficulties with their psychological wellbeing.

The Combined Effect of Ethnic Identity Strength and Profiles on the Mental Health of Acadian University Students

“…The first study is designed to develop and test a measure of ethnic identity profiles among Acadian university students. Previous studies conducted among Acadians (Noël & Beaton, 2010;Pilote, 2006) have been qualitative in nature and thus unable to provide an instrument that can be used with a representative sample of the Acadian population. The second study will investigate the effect of the combination of the strength of the ethnic identity and ethnic identity profiles on mental health among Acadian students who are in the northern (majority status) and southern (minority status) regions of New Brunswick.…”

“…Among Acadian youth, Pilote (2006) uncovered a variety of profiles ranging from Critically engaged -someone who describes themselves as a member of the minority group, but refuses to identify with the traditional values held by the group as it does not reflect their day-to-day reality -to Chameleon -a person who describes themselves as a member of the minority or majority group, depending on the context (Pilote, 2006). Noël and Beaton (2010) detected profiles among southeastern Acadian youth that include Bilingual with Anglophone Identity, which refers to Acadians who believe that their Acadian heritage is irrelevant and describe themselves as proficient Anglophones, and Indifferent, which refers to youth who choose to describe themselves as unique individuals, rather than a member of the Acadian ethnic group. This first study will test a measure of ethnic identity profiles with a representative group of Acadian university students.…”

“…More importantly, certain ethnic identity profiles protected while others harmed mental health. To illustrate, due to their unique minority status, certain Acadian adolescents from southern New Brunswick who adopt an ethnic identity profile that devalues their cultural heritage experience mental health problems (Noël & Beaton, 2010). Romero and Roberts (2003) have found that marginalized ethnic youth who report high levels of the ethnic profile, Affirmation, experience high self-esteem.…”

“…Pilote compiled eight different ethnic identity profiles from the description of the ethnic ingroup and life story of Acadian youth from southern New Brunswick (Pilote, 2004(Pilote, , 2006. Similarly, Noël and Beaton (2010) carried out semi-structured interviews with Acadian youth in southeastern New Brunswick and uncovered six different ethnic identity profiles. More importantly, certain ethnic identity profiles protected while others harmed mental health.…”

“…The qualitative data collected by Noël and Beaton (2010) was used to create 34 items to reflect the six profiles. For example, a student characterized in the Bilingual with an Anglophone Identity profile explained "I often speak in English, and I just prefer it over French."…”