Sexual health is related to sexual experience and the accurate understanding of HIV and STIs modes of transmission, symptoms, and prevention. An examination of the influence of sociocultural factors provides a greater understanding of the determinants of sexual health given that sexual conduct is socially and culturally constructed. Consequently, this study sought to examine the influence of acculturation as it related to identity, behaviours and values, and the effects of religiosity and perceived discrimination in Haitian-Canadian, Franco-Ontarian and Anglo-Canadian emerging adults on their level of sexual experience and knowledge of HIV and STIs. The results indicated that Haitian-Canadians were the least sexually experienced group. Haitian-Canadian women in particular, were less experienced than Franco-Ontarian and Anglo-Canadian young women. The three groups did not differ in their level of knowledge regarding HIV. Yet, Anglo-Canadians were the most knowledgeable regarding STIs, followed by Franco-Ontarians. The level of religiosity experienced by participants was the only significant predictor related to sexual experience for all three groups. More religiosity predicted less sexual experience. Furthermore, greater religiosity also predicted less knowledge of HIV for Franco-Ontarians. These findings suggest that more specific measures regarding sexual norms and values should be used to examine sexual acculturation.

Les mouvements migratoires à partir du Québec du milieu du XIXe siècle jusqu’aux années 1930 mènent à l’implantation de communautés francophones dans diverses régions de l’Amérique du Nord, créant ainsi des contextes favorables à la formulation d’un discours sur le passé. Ce discours participe-t-il au grand récit historique de la nation canadienne-française, ou propose-t-il une mise en récit propre à la région ? L’analyse proposée étudie en parallèle l’historiographie produite au Québec et celles qui émergent en périphérie, soit en Ontario, dans l’Ouest canadien et en Nouvelle Angleterre, en examinant plus particulièrement les représentations du territoire historique et l’élaboration d’un discours d’enracinement. Cette étude croisée et comparative permet de mieux saisir la dynamique et les tensions entre « région » et « nation » qui influencent la mise en récit de l’histoire au Canada français. S’échelonnant sur plus d’un siècle, l’étude privilégie certains moments clés de la production historique au Québec et dans les régions à l’étude. La mise en parallèle de la production historique au Québec et en milieu minoritaire nous permet d’examiner les points de convergence et de divergences entre le travail historique en région et au « centre » québécois. La thèse s’interroge donc sur la place de la nation et de la région dans ce discours d’enracinement afin d’en saisir le rôle dans l’historiographie au Québec ainsi que dans la diaspora canadienne-française jusqu’aux années 1960 et à « l’éclatement » du Canada français. L’objectif ici est de faire ressortir les particularités régionales de même que les dissemblances ou contrastes qui, jusqu’alors, ont le plus souvent échappé aux chercheurs. / Migratory movements from Quebec between the mid-19th century and 1930 led to the establishment of Francophone communities in various regions of North America, thus creating contexts favourable to the formulation of historical discourse. In the course of this dissertation, we analyze whether this discourse contributed to the great historical narrative of the French-Canadian nation, or if it proposed a region-specific narrative. The dissertation compares the historiography produced in Quebec to that emerging in the periphery, in Ontario, Western Canada and New England, examining more specifically the representations of historical territory and the development of a discours d’enracinement (or a sense of rootedness). This comparative study provides a better understanding of the dynamics between regions and nation that influence historical narrative in French Canadian history. Spanning more than a century, the study focuses on certain key moments in historical production in Quebec and in the selected regions we study. By drawing parallels between historical production in Quebec and in various minority settings, we examine the points of convergence and divergences between historical work in the regions and in Quebec. This dissertation therefore examines the place of the nation and the region in historical discourse, through the analysis of the discours d’enracinement or sense of rootedness, in order to understand the role it plays in Quebec’s historiography and in historical work being produced in the French Canadian diaspora until the 1960s. The objective here is to highlight regional experiences and the similarities and contrasts that have generally escaped researchers.