To separate or not to separate? Parental decision-making regarding the separation of twins in the early years of schooling

Abstract

In recent times concerns about possible adverse effects of early separation and advocacy for individual rights have resulted in a movement away from organizational level policies about the separation of twin children as they enter school. Instead, individualized approaches that focus on the twin children’s characteristics and family perspectives have been proposed. This study, conducted in Australia where all but a few families had choice about the class placement of their twin children, questioned parents (N = 156) about their placement decisions. Results indicated that most parents opted for placement together in the early years of schooling. The choice to separate twins at school entry was associated with parent identification of risk in the twin relationship, while being kept together was associated with parent identification of absence of such risk. The findings are discussed in light of the current evidence against separation, and suggest that parent choices regarding the separation of twin children in the early years are informative to educational policy and practice.

Bullying and Victimization: The Effect of Close Companionship

“…Schools may have a set policy regarding classroom placement of twins (Saudino et al, 2005), depending on national context and beliefs of the principle and teachers. Nevertheless, most young twins and their parents prefer not to be separated (Gordon, 2015; Staton et al, 2012). The protective effect of classroom sharing regarding victimization for girl–girl twins should be taken into account when twins enter primary school.…”

Australian Twin Registry: 30 Years of Progress

“…For most twin pairs, staying together in the first year of school is a social support (Bekkhus et al, 2011;Staton et al, 2012). Epigenetics Birth weight Birth weight is associated with epigenetic differences in genes associated with growth, metabolism, and cardiovascular function (Gordon et al, 2011;Saffery et al, 2012).…”

“…For most twin pairs, staying together in the first year of school is a social support (Bekkhus et al, 2011;Staton et al, 2012).…”

Twins and Kindergarten Separation

“…(Sipes & Sipes, 1998, pp. 159-162) Studies of twins in different countries have reported various rates of twin school separation with 31% of twins in the United Kingdom (Twins and Multiple Births Association, 2009), 19% to 48% of Dutch twins (Polderman et al, 2010;van Leeuwen, van den Berg, van Beijsterveldt, & Boomsma, 2005), 23% to 60% of Australian twins (Gleeson, Hay, Johnston, & Theobald, 1990;Staton, Thorpe, Thompson, & Danby, 2012), and 80% to 84% of American twins (National Organization of Mothers of Twins Clubs [NOMOTC], 2010;Segal & Russell, 1992) placed in independent classes. Parents of twins have reported that while some principals are willing to accept joint classroom placement requests, many principals favor class separation and some set strict twin separation policies (NOMOTC, 2010;Preedy, 1999;Segal & Russell, 1992;Twins & Multiple Births Association, 2009).…”

“…Additional school surveys have documented that many administrators enforce strict mandatory separation of twins in schools (Gleeson et al, 1990;Lacina, 2010;Schorn, 2009;Segal, 2011;Segal & Russell, 1992). For a sensible array of reasons, some parents of twins do prefer for their twins to be placed in separate classrooms (Friedman, 2008(Friedman, , 2010Schorn, 2009;Segal & Russell, 1992;Staton et al, 2012), but many other parents strongly favor joint placement (Alt, 2004c, p. 20;Grimes, 2006) and experience immense frustration when they are told that their twins must be separated (Bellafante, 2006;Dean, 2002;Dolan, 2012;Grime, 2008;Lacina, 2010).…”