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The Defenceless Child: Socio-economic and gender differentiated child mortality responses to losing one’s mother in 19th century Sweden

Andersson, Tommy LU (2025) EKHS02 20251
Department of Economic History
Abstract
This thesis explores the effect on neonatal, post-neonatal, and child mortality of being a motherless child and the interaction this situation had with socio-economic status and gender in Sweden during the period 1790-1910. Using a longitudinal, individual level, database (SwedPop), covering large parts of the Swedish population, together with a Cox proportional hazards model, this study finds that the effect of maternal death during infancy was largest in the very early stages of life, primarily affecting children under the age of one. For those age 1-4 years, there was a lingering though largely reduced effect. The effect is furthermore found to have been significantly worse for girls than boys. For socio-economic status, scattered... (More)
This thesis explores the effect on neonatal, post-neonatal, and child mortality of being a motherless child and the interaction this situation had with socio-economic status and gender in Sweden during the period 1790-1910. Using a longitudinal, individual level, database (SwedPop), covering large parts of the Swedish population, together with a Cox proportional hazards model, this study finds that the effect of maternal death during infancy was largest in the very early stages of life, primarily affecting children under the age of one. For those age 1-4 years, there was a lingering though largely reduced effect. The effect is furthermore found to have been significantly worse for girls than boys. For socio-economic status, scattered results indicate an effect in favour of children within non-manual occupation families, but the effect, if any, seems to have been small compared to the baseline hazard related to the loss of the mother. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Andersson, Tommy LU
supervisor
organization
course
EKHS02 20251
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
maternal death, neonatal mortality, infant mortality, child mortality, socio-economic status, gender, 19th century, Sweden
language
English
id
9204392
date added to LUP
2025-08-18 10:50:13
date last changed
2025-08-18 10:50:13
@misc{9204392,
  abstract     = {{This thesis explores the effect on neonatal, post-neonatal, and child mortality of being a motherless child and the interaction this situation had with socio-economic status and gender in Sweden during the period 1790-1910. Using a longitudinal, individual level, database (SwedPop), covering large parts of the Swedish population, together with a Cox proportional hazards model, this study finds that the effect of maternal death during infancy was largest in the very early stages of life, primarily affecting children under the age of one. For those age 1-4 years, there was a lingering though largely reduced effect. The effect is furthermore found to have been significantly worse for girls than boys. For socio-economic status, scattered results indicate an effect in favour of children within non-manual occupation families, but the effect, if any, seems to have been small compared to the baseline hazard related to the loss of the mother.}},
  author       = {{Andersson, Tommy}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{The Defenceless Child: Socio-economic and gender differentiated child mortality responses to losing one’s mother in 19th century Sweden}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}