A typology of the three-year-old twin sibling relationship drawn from two different environments: School and home

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to describe the relational structure ofchild twins on the basis oftheir mothers' representations of their behavior in two everyday settings. at school and in the home. This study looks in particular at dependence on the co-twin and the dominant/dominated relationship in these two life environments. Fifty-seven questionnaires were gathered from mothers of twins three months after the children had begun preschool. A multiple correspondence analysis and an automatic classification of the data pointed out several relational structures ofthe twin sibling relationship. in contrast to the often stereotyped single representation of twinship. A secondary aim was to associate the observed relational structures with (a) the type of twinship and the sex makeup of the twin pair (b) the mothers ' child-raising behaviors. which mayor may not tend to turn the twins outward (first short separation of the children before preschool). Contrary to predictions. no particular relational structures could be differentiated on the basis ofthe type oftwinship (monozygotic vs. same-sex dizygotic twins). On the other hand, pairs composed of a boy and a girl exhibited a number of specific characteristics. Parents who were in favor ofshort separations did not have children who were more co-twin independent in the school environment. However these twins showed a dominant/dominated relationship in the home.Although the notion of "twin link" evokes a variety of social and cultural representations and is now a commonly used term, there are few empirical studies providing insight into the origin, the nature, and the development of the sibling link between twins. Starting in the fifties in France, the work by Zazzo became the basis for a major conceptual turnaround in the study of twinship, which until then had concentrated mainly on genetic issues (Zazzo, 1960(Zazzo, , 1976. Zazzo attracted our attention to the existence of a link between the twins which The study was supported by a grant from the Mission Interministerielle Recherche Experimentation (M.I.R.E.-DEP20/93).

Do Friendships and Sibling Relationships Provide Protection against Peer Victimization in a Similar Way?

“…For example, in an investigation comparing school-age twin and non twin sibling dyads matched on a variety of demographic variables, Koch (1966) found that twins spent more time together, were emotionally closer, were less likely to be rivals and were less jealous of one another compared to non twin siblings. Nevertheless, research with preschool-aged twin pairs shows that the quality of the relationship between twins greatly varies from one dyad to the next (Robin, 1999), as is the case with all other types of sibling relationships. Moreover, a main interest in the present study was to focus on sibling dyads that are most likely to resemble friendship dyads on a number of features.…”

Conséquences psychologiques des naissances multiples

“…Les résultats d'une étude de Robin illustrent l'importance de ce lien. Elle a en effet observé que les parents qui favorisent de courtes séparations pendant les premières années n'ont pas pour autant des enfants plus indépendants l'un par rapport à l'autre [34]. Être toujours ensemble n'entraînerait donc pas forcément une perte d'autonomie et l'indépendance vis-à-vis du cojumeau pourrait aussi s'acquérir à partir de la base sécu-risante que constituerait sa présence permanente pendant la petite enfance.…”

The perceptions, policy, and practice of educating twins: A review

“…In fact, the present reviewers found only two studies examining American twins in school (i.e., Koch, 1966;Segal & Russell, 1992). The remaining studies focused on the education of twins in Australia, England, and France (Gleeson, Hay, Johnson, & Theobald, 1990;Hay & O'Brien, 1987;Preedy, 1999;Robin, 1999). It is acknowledged that some of the specific findings from these studies may not apply to American twins in school.…”

“…If anything, co-twin comparability appeared to be positively associated with positive social and cognitive attitudes, instead of with intellectual and social lack, as has been alleged" (p. 132). Similarly, over thirty years later Robin (1999) found that twin companionship was not associated with maternal perceptions of twin dependency or decreased social development in preschool. That is, MZ twins who were more likely to be perceived as a unit by mothers were not closer nor more co-twin dependent at school than dizygotic (DZ) or fraternal twins.…”

“…It should be noted that Robin (1999) used questionnaire data from schools completed by mothers of twins who were told to "gather information from informal discussions with teachers and to refrain from responding when information was unknown" (p.144). Therefore, since these data reflect maternal perceptions of twin performance in school, they may or may not accurately depict twins' educational experiences.…”