Mother's death and child survival: The case of early Quebec

Samuel Pavard; Alain Gagnon; Bertrand Desjardins; Evelyne Heyer

Mother's death and child survival: The case of early Quebec

Samuel Pavard ¹ Alain Gagnon ² Bertrand Desjardins ³ Evelyne Heyer ¹

1 EAE - Eco-Anthropologie et Ethnobiologie

2 EAE - Eco-Anthropologie et Ethnobiologie

Abstract : The aim of this paper is to account for the effect of mother's death on child survival in a historical population. Using comprehensive data on the early French Canadian population of Quebec, evidence is provided for a higher risk of dying for motherless children that remains significant over all childhood and long after the death of the mother. The specific effect of the loss of maternal care was estimated by comparing mortality before and after mother's death, furnishing a means to control for family heterogeneity. No differential in investment between genders was detected before age 3, but older girls suffered a threefold higher susceptibility to mother's death than their male counterparts. This suggests that grown-up girls assuming the responsibilities of the missing mother had a lower chance of survival.

Document type :

Journal articles

Domain :

Humanities and Social Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences / Demography

Complete list of metadatas

Cited literature [55 references] Display Hide Download

https://hal-mnhn.archives-ouvertes.fr/mnhn-02283690
Contributor : Samuel Pavard <>
Submitted on : Thursday, September 12, 2019 - 9:36:55 AM
Last modification on : Wednesday, September 18, 2019 - 1:14:09 AM

Mother's death and child survival: The case of early Quebec

Links full text

Identifiers

Collections

Citation

Export

Metrics

13

Contact

Mother's death and child survival: The case of early Quebec

Links full text

Identifiers

Collections

Citation

Export

Share

Metrics

13

Contact