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MOTHER’S DEATH AND CHILD SURVIVAL: THE CASE OF EARLY QUEBEC

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 March 2004

SAMUEL PAVARD
Affiliation:
Laboratoire d’anthropologie biologique, CNRS FRE 2292/Musée de l’Homme, Paris, France
ALAIN GAGNON
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany
BERTRAND DESJARDINS
Affiliation:
Programme de recherches en démographie historique, University of Montreal, Canada
EVELYNE HEYER
Affiliation:
Laboratoire d’anthropologie biologique, CNRS FRE 2292/Musée de l’Homme, Paris, France

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 three-fold 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.

Type
Regular Articles
Copyright
© 2005 Cambridge University Press

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