1. Objectifs

Intentions :
« The aim of this paper is to account for the effect of mother’s death on child survival in a historical population. » (résumé, p. 209)

2. Méthode

Échantillon :
« [P]opulation register composed of biographical files on all individuals of European ancestry who lived in the St Lawrence Valley between the very beginning of the settlement (1608) and the middle of the 18th century (La Rose, 1980; Légaré, 1988). The file for each individual gives the date and place of birth, marriage(s) and death, as well as family and conjugal ties with other individuals. Created by the Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH) at the University of Montreal. » (p. 213)

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

« 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. » (résumé, p. 209)