The Effect of Indian Residential Schools on Height and Body Mass Post-1930

Donna Feir and M. Chris Auld ()
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M. Chris Auld: Department of Economics, University of Victoria, https://www.uvic.ca/socialsciences/economics/

No 1703, Department Discussion Papers from Department of Economics, University of Victoria

Abstract: We study the effects of Canadian Indian residential schooling on two anthropometric measures of health during childhood: adult height and body weight. We use repeated cross-sectional data from the 1991 and 2001 Aboriginal Peoples Surveys and detailed historical data on school closures and location to identify the effect of residential schooling on these outcomes. We find some evidence that on average residential schooling increases adult height and decreases adult body weight of those that attended. However, these effects are concentrated after the 1950s when the schools were subject to tighter health regulations and students were selected to attend residential school based partly on their need for medical care that was otherwise unavailable. Residential schooling is only one policy in Canada that impacted Status Indian peoples health, so our results must be understood in the broader social context. We also document significant increases in height and body weight for Status Indian people born after the 1960s which is suggestive of non-trivial changes in diet and living conditions during this time period.

Keywords: Indigenous peoples; residential schools; health; stature; weight; identity; schooling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 I14 I15 I18 N32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 45 pages
Date: 2017-10-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea, nep-his and nep-ure
Note: ISSN 1914-2838
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