diff --git a/test/parallel/test-http-status-reason-invalid-chars.js b/test/parallel/test-http-status-reason-invalid-chars.js
index 7a8564a906131a..09d5855cf52c6c 100644
--- a/test/parallel/test-http-status-reason-invalid-chars.js
+++ b/test/parallel/test-http-status-reason-invalid-chars.js
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ const http = require('http');
 
 function explicit(req, res) {
   assert.throws(() => {
-    res.writeHead(200, `OK\r\nContent-Type: text/html\r\n`);
+    res.writeHead(200, 'OK\r\nContent-Type: text/html\r\n');
   }, /Invalid character in statusMessage/);
 
   assert.throws(() => {
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ function explicit(req, res) {
 
 function implicit(req, res) {
   assert.throws(() => {
-    res.statusMessage = `OK\r\nContent-Type: text/html\r\n`;
+    res.statusMessage = 'OK\r\nContent-Type: text/html\r\n';
     res.writeHead(200);
   }, /Invalid character in statusMessage/);
   res.statusMessage = 'OK';
@@ -37,8 +37,8 @@ const server = http.createServer((req, res) => {
   let left = 2;
   const check = common.mustCall((res) => {
     left--;
-    assert.notEqual(res.headers['content-type'], 'text/html');
-    assert.notEqual(res.headers['content-type'], 'gotcha');
+    assert.notStrictEqual(res.headers['content-type'], 'text/html');
+    assert.notStrictEqual(res.headers['content-type'], 'gotcha');
     if (left === 0) server.close();
   }, 2);
   http.get(`${url}/explicit`, check).end();