Study: The role of social connections in mitigating the harms associated with discrimination, 2023/2024
Released: 2025-07-09
In 2023/2024, 45% of all racialized Canadians reported experiencing discrimination over the previous five years. While discrimination has been related to negative mental and physical health, lower levels of life satisfaction and reduced hopefulness about the future, these outcomes become less pronounced when victims of discriminatory acts have strong personal support networks.
Among racialized Canadians who reported experiencing discrimination in the previous five years, one-third (33%) reported having a high level of life satisfaction (scoring 8 or higher on a 10-point scale). This proportion increased to 47% among victims with strong family connections and to 49% for those with strong friend connections. Mental health outcomes and future outlook also fared better when victims had personal support networks.
These results are based on the new study released today, "Softening the blow of discrimination: The role of social connections in mitigating the harms associated with racism and discrimination," which used the Survey Series on People and their Communities to look at the role of family and friends in mitigating the harms associated with discrimination among racialized Canadians. The study also examined how family and friend relationships can influence discrimination victims' perceptions of other Canadians and broader Canadian society.
Discrimination victims with close social ties report having better mental health than those without social connections
Among racialized Canadians, the rate of self-reported fair or poor mental health in 2023/2024 was almost double among victims of discrimination (24%) compared with non-victims (13%). This higher rate of fair or poor mental health was seen across all forms of discrimination. Victims of unfair treatment, exclusion, physical threats or attacks or verbal attacks were about equally likely to report having fair or poor mental health.
The rate of fair or poor mental health was heightened for people who repeatedly experienced incidents of discrimination. In particular, 27% of racialized Canadians who experienced discrimination on multiple occasions in the previous five years had fair or poor mental health. By comparison, this proportion was 14% (estimate should be interpreted with caution) among racialized Canadians who experienced a single incident of discrimination during this period.
Regardless of the number of incidents of discrimination experienced, having a network of supportive individuals was related to better mental well-being. The rates of fair or poor mental health among victims who had such a network were on par with those of non-victims overall (13%). Specifically, 13% of discrimination victims with strong family support reported having fair or poor mental health, while this was the case for 42% of victims who lacked this support.
Likewise, the impact of social connections on the mental health of discrimination victims was seen among people who suffered repeated episodes of racism and discrimination. Fair or poor mental health was reported by 15% of repeat victims with strong family support, which is more than three times lower than the 47% of repeat victims without this level of family support.
Negative outlook of Canadian society is less common among victims with strong family and friend support
Experiencing racism and discrimination is closely related to perceptions of other Canadians and of Canadian society as a whole. Racialized Canadians who faced discrimination in 2023/2024 were less likely to have warm feelings toward Canadians (38%) than their peers who did not (46%). They were also more than twice as likely as those who did not experience discrimination to have no hope in unity among Canadians (18% of racialized Canadians who faced discrimination compared with 8% of those who did not) or the way democracy works in Canada (18% of racialized Canadians who faced discrimination compared with 8% of those who did not).
Positive feelings toward others in society increased with close social connections, while negative feelings lessened. For example, 42% of discrimination victims with close friendships expressed warm feelings toward other Canadians. This proportion is similar to that of non-victims overall (46%) and is significantly higher than that of victims without close friend ties (28%).
Similarly, hopelessness regarding unity among Canadians and about the way democracy works was similar among non-victims and victims with strong social connections. In the case of views on democracy in Canada, a lack of hope was reported by 11% of victims with strong friend connections. This was similar to non-victims overall (8%) and much lower than the proportion for victims without close friend ties (21%).
Having strong social support is unrelated to discrimination victims' perception of the role of race and ethnicity in life success
While close social support positively influenced the well-being of discrimination victims, in 2023/2024, strong family and friend relationships had no effect on victims' perceptions of inequality and its impact on their personal life success. For instance, victims' belief that race influenced the extent of their own life success did not decrease with strong family and friend support. In fact, this belief remained around twice as common among victims with (50%) and without (58%) family support, compared with non-victims (27%).
Monitoring patterns in discrimination and following the effects of those patterns and protective factors can help provide a more detailed picture of the overall quality of life in Canada. For more information on how discrimination and unfair treatment are measured and monitored in Canada through Canada's Quality of Life Framework, visit Canada's Quality of Life Hub.
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Note to readers
The study is based on data from the 2023/2024 Survey Series on People and their Communities (SSPC). The SSPC is a series of social surveys that involved creating a panel of people who agreed to complete short surveys. The study mainly used panels one to five (merged) to explore questions on discrimination and social connections. The reference period for the SSPC is October 2022 to April 2024. The target population for the SSPC is people aged 15 years and older living in the 10 provinces of Canada.
Racial discrimination was measured with the following question: "In the past five years, have you experienced any of the following situations because of your race or ethnicity?
You experienced discrimination or were treated unfairly by others (e.g., denied service or employment, treated badly or with suspicion)
You experienced exclusion (e.g., made to feel like you don't belong, or you are inferior or people are avoiding you)
You experienced physical attacks, abuse, intimidation or threats
You experienced verbal abuse (e.g., name-calling, racial slurs or ridicule)
You did not experience any of these situations because of your race or ethnicity"
The term "Canadians" refers to all people living in Canada, regardless of citizenship status.
The concept of "racialized population" or "racialized group" is derived directly from the concept of "visible minority" in the 2021 Census. The Employment Equity Act defines the visible minority population as "persons, other than Aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour." It consists mainly of the following groups: South Asian, Chinese, Black, Filipino, Latin American, Arab, Southeast Asian, West Asian, Korean and Japanese. Indigenous people are not included among the racialized population in the current analysis.
Products
The article titled "Softening the blow of discrimination: The role of social connections in mitigating the harms associated with racism and discrimination" is now available in Insights on Canadian Society (75-006-X).
Contact information
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).
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