Intergenerational Patterns of Fertility Among Registered Indian Teenage Girls in Canada

Abstract

In 2004, Registered Indian teenage girls aged 15 to 19 had a 94‰ fertility rate, 7 times the average Canadian rate for the same age group. Despite various general studies on the subject, there has been little interest in the past on the intergenerational character of teenage fertility. Analysis of data from the Indian Register of the Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC) reveals that, among Registered Indian teenage girls, the fertility of daughters of teenage mothers is systematically higher than for daughters of mothers aged 20 or older. While it is impossible to establish a direct link of causality, the results of this study demonstrate for the first time the intergenerational nature of teenage motherhood among Registered Indian girls.

Fertility of Aboriginal People in Canada: An Overview of Trends at the Turn of the 21st Century

“…Thus, to avoid bias, fertility indicators computed using the Indian Register are limited to the female population registered under subsection 6(1) of the Indian Act, who can transmit their status to all their children. 21 This approach is similar to the one used by Guimond and Robitaille (2009) and Amorevieta-Gentil et al (2013).…”

“…As mentioned in a study by Amorevieta-Gentil et al (2013), analyzing fertility with the Indian Register has two major limitations: under-declaration and late declaration of births. The former refers to children who died before their birth was registered and to people entitled to register who never do so.…”

“…Loh and George (2003) analyzed Indian Register data from 1974 to 1996 and also found consistently higher rates for Registered Indians, although they observed a converging pattern until the second half of the 1980s. For the most recent period, a study by Amorevieta-Gentil et al (2013) for 1986 showed that trends in the total fertility rate (TFR) of the Registered Indian population followed trends for Canada as a whole, with about one child more on average and with no sign of convergence with the rest of the population during the period. Persistent higher fertility among Aboriginal people has also been observed in Australia and New Zealand (Johnstone 2011), while in the United States American Indians' and Alaska Natives' fertility has declined in recent years (Cannon and Percheski 2017).…”