An Introduction to the German Twin Family Panel (TwinLife)

Lang, Volker; Weigel, Lena; Mönkediek, Bastian; Baum, Myriam A.; Eichhorn, H; Eifler, Eike Friederike; Hahn, Elisabeth; Hufer, Anke; Klatzka, Christoph H.; Kottwitz, Anita; Krell, K; Nikstat, Amelie; Diewald, Martin; Riemann, Rainer; Spinath, Frank M.

doi:10.1515/jbnst-2019-0066

Cited by 11 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Part of the purpose of the study was to evaluate the effect of core social inequality indicators like educational status, occupational status, and income on child and adolescent cognitive and psychological outcomes. The TwinLife sample covers the full distributions of the above-mentioned key sociodemographic variables, comparable to those of the German Microcensus Survey (Destatis, 2014a(Destatis, , 2014b conducted by the Federal Statistical Office, which is representative of the German population (Lang & Kottwitz, 2017). TwinLife includes data from four birth cohorts of MZ and DZ same-sex twin pairs who were aged 5 (C05), 11 (C11), 17 (C17), and 23 (C23) at first measurement in 2014/2015 and their families.…”

Section: Methods Sample and Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gene–environment interplay in internalizing problem behavior.

Nikstat¹,

Beam²,

Riemann³

2023

Developmental Psychology

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Behavior genetic methods are useful for examining mechanisms underlying the interaction between genetic and family environmental factors of internalizing problem behavior (INT). Previous twin studies, however, have shown little consistency in interaction patterns, depending on type and operationalization of measured environments. The aim of the current study was to explore different gene-by-environment interaction patterns among different family-level environmental risk factors and resources known to correlate with INT. Using an empirical-based approach, we combined various indicators of the family environment to derive four dimensions: positive parenting, negative parenting, lack of parental resources, and socioeconomic status. We then used a genetically informed design of twins raised in the same family to test whether interaction patterns followed a diathesis stress or vantage sensitivity model formulation. The sample consisted of 2,089 twin pairs and their families from two twin birth cohorts (ages 11 and 17) participating in Wave 1 of the German TwinLife study of social inequalities. In line with a vantage sensitivity pattern of interaction and with the bioecological model of development (Bronfenbrenner & Ceci, 1994), evidence for a general mechanism of gene-environment interaction with increasing nonshared environmental variance for more adverse and less propitious family conditions was found. In preadolescence, parenting behavior had a greater moderating influence on INT compared to general family conditions like socioeconomic status. Interventions for INT that directly involve parents, thus, may be more important in preadolescent populations whereas individual interventions for adolescents may be more successful if they are adapted to different levels of socioeconomic status. Public Significance StatementThe present study suggests that environmental influences outside the family may have a greater impact on internalizing problem behavior under less advantageous family conditions. In preadolescence, interventions for internalizing problem behavior should involve parents directly whereas in adolescence, interventions may be tailored individually that take into account adolescents' socioeconomic status.

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Section: Methods Sample and Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gene–environment interplay in internalizing problem behavior.

Nikstat¹,

Beam²,

Riemann³

2023

Developmental Psychology

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“…We use the second youngest of the four birth cohorts, which included 1042 twin pairs in the first wave. 756 of these twin pairs participated in the second wave ( Lang et al, 2020 ). These children were aged 10 to 12 years at the first survey wave and 12 to 14 years at the second wave.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effects of parenting on early adolescents’ noncognitive skills: Evidence from a sample of twins in Germany

2021

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Many theories in the social sciences assume that parenting affects child development. Previous research mostly supports the notion that parenting affects the skill development of children in early childhood. There are fewer studies testing whether parenting in early adolescence has such an influence. We estimate the effects of parenting on early adolescents’ noncognitive skills using data from the German Twin Family Panel (TwinLife). Specifically, we look at the effects of parenting styles, parental activities, and extracurricular activities on the academic self-concept, motivation, self-esteem, self-efficacy, and locus of control of 10 to 14 years old children. To control for unobserved heterogeneity and reverse causality, we employ twin fixed-effects models combined with longitudinal information. In addition, MZ twin fixed effects models also control for genetic confounding. Our findings provide no support to the notion that parenting styles, parental activities, and extracurricular activities in early adolescence affect the development of children's noncognitive skills. We conclude that our results, in combination with the majority of evidence from previous research, are in line with a model according to which parenting has larger effects on the skill development of children in early childhood than in early adolescence.

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“…This data collection lasted from November 2015 to April 2017. Subsequent data collections (F2F 2 in 2016-2018, CATI 2 in 2017-2019, F2F 3 in 2018 -2020- , CATI 3 in 2019- , and F2F 4 in 2020 were also conducted at this rate. The time interval between two data collections is always one year, and participants are interviewed alternately at home and by telephone.…”

Section: Time Of Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This resulted in a gross sample of more than 13,000 families. Finally, N = 4,097 families with monozygotic or dizygotic same-sex twin pairs participated in the first TwinLife survey (F2F 1; for more detailed information, please see Lang & Kottwitz, 2020). However, one family was removed from data release in version v4-0-0 (https://doi.org/10.4232/1.13539) due to unresolvable inconsistencies in the family's responses, resulting in a total number of N = 4,096 families in the dataset.…”

Section: Sampling Sample and Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Analyses of the first wave of the survey have shown that many characteristics of TwinLife households are comparable to those of multi-child households in the Microcensus (Lang & Kottwitz, 2020). Also, selective drop-out in terms of personality traits and relationship characteristics cannot be observed in TwinLife (Klatzka et al, 2019).…”

Section: Sampling Sample and Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Data from the German TwinLife Study: Genetic and Social Origins of Educational Predictors, Processes, and Outcomes

Rohm¹,

Andreas²,

Deppe³

et al. 2023

JOPD

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The major aim of the German TwinLife study is the investigation of gene-environment interplay driving educational and other inequalities across developmental trajectories from childhood to early adulthood. TwinLife encompasses an 8-year longitudinal, cross-sequential extended twin family design with data from same-sex twins of four age cohorts (5, 11, 17, and 23 years) and their parents, as well as their non-twin siblings, partners, and children, if available, altogether containing N = 4,096 families. As such, TwinLife includes unique and openly accessible data that allows, but is not limited to, genetically informative and environmentally sensitive research on sources of inequalities regarding educational attainment, school achievement, and skill development.

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An Introduction to the German Twin Family Panel (TwinLife)

Cited by 11 publications

References 18 publications

Gene–environment interplay in internalizing problem behavior.

Gene–environment interplay in internalizing problem behavior.

The effects of parenting on early adolescents’ noncognitive skills: Evidence from a sample of twins in Germany

Data from the German TwinLife Study: Genetic and Social Origins of Educational Predictors, Processes, and Outcomes

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