The biological impacts of Indigenous residential school attendance on the next generation

A study from the University of Lethbridge is provides evidence that a mother's experience of being in a residential school may have biological impacts on her children.

Kat Chief Moon-Riley conducted the research as part of her Master of Science thesis. She examined how social and economic stressors affect Indigenous health.

Chief Moon-Riley, who's now a medical student in Saskatchewan, says 43% of the 90 First Nations adults she collected data from had moderate impairments such as increased blood pressure and inflammation. That's compared to those who did not have a mother who went to a residential school.

She notes people need to recognize the impact of residential schools on past and present generations.

Chief Moon-Riley is from the Blood Reserve and had two grandparents attend residential school. 

Read the full study