Treating twins as individuals: Maternal educative practices

Intergenerational health mobility: Evidence from Danish registers

This paper is one of the first to investigate mobility in overall health using high-quality administrative data. The attractiveness of this approach lies in objective health measures and large sample sizes allowing twin analyses. I operationalize health mobility by a variety of statistics: rank-rank slopes, intergenerational correlations (IGCs) and sibling and identical twin correlations. I find rank-rank slopes and IGCs in the range 0.11-0.15 and sibling correlations in the range 0.14-0.20. Mobility in health is thus relatively high, both when compared to similar US-based studies, and when contrasted with outcomes such as educational attainment and income. Comparing sibling and identical twin correlations with parent-child associations confirms earlier findings in the literature on equality of opportunity, namely that sibling correlations capture far more variation than traditional IGCs. I conclude that 14%-38% of the variation in individual health outcomes can be attributed to family background and genes, factors which the individual cannot be held accountable for. This finding suggests that simple parent-child associations may be a poor metric for measuring health mobility.

The Twin Relationship Questionnaire

Abstract. Twins’ relationships evoke critical dilemmas for parents and teachers regarding raising and educating their twins. The current study provides comprehensive psychometric information about the Twin Relationship Questionnaire (TRQ; Fortuna, Goldner, & Knafo, 2010 ) as examined in nine samples, using mothers’ and fathers’ reports on 1,560 pairs of twins, tested in five measurement points from age 3 to age 9. On half of the subsamples, we conducted principal component analyses (PCA), whereas on the other subsamples, we conducted confirmatory factor analyses (CFA). Five factors were found in the PCA and confirmed by the CFA: conflict, closeness, dependence, dominance, and rivalry. All scales showed adequate internal consistencies and corrected item-total correlations. Correlation matrixes between scales demonstrate a triad of conflict, rivalry, and dominance scales, as opposed to the dyad of closeness and dependence. As evidence for the TRQ’s reliability and validity, we report the degree of agreement between mothers and fathers, the 10-month stability of mothers’ reports, and the associations of the TRQ subscales with experimentally assessed prosocial behaviors between the twins at age 6.5, and with the twins’ reports on their closeness at age 11. The replication of the findings across ages and raters reinforces the reliability and validity of the questionnaire.

French parents’ cultural models and childrearing beliefs

This study explored, identified, and described “cultural models” of parenting shared by Parisian parents of infants and young children from birth to age 3 years. A questionnaire was constructed in the field to assess levels of importance attached to 50 practices associated with the daily care of infants and young children. Data were collected from a sample of 455 Parisian mothers and fathers and principal components analysis was used to identify three reliable components of parenting beliefs that constituted cultural models: “Awakening and exposing child to diverse stimuli”, “Ensuring proper presentation of child”, and “Responding to and bonding with child”. Four sociodemographic variables predicted variation in mean importance scores associated with each of the three cultural models: parent’s age, gender, education level, and religiosity, although the magnitudes of these associations were small. The discussion highlights the strengths and limitations of this method and offers suggestions for further research.

Childcare patterns of mothers of twins during the first year

This study aims to describe the ways in which mothers of twins organize their childcare activities during the first year after a twin birth and to determine what factors might affect these mothering practices. The mother's physical and psychological state, support and help from the father and others in the surroundings, and the type of twinship were among the factors studied. Data on the organization of feeding, sleeping and waking routines were gathered from 51 families. A correspondence analysis and a cluster analysis showed that twin mothering practices can be described along two dimensions: individualized care vs collective care, and level of organization of daily routines. The mother's state of fatigue only partially accounts for the different types of maternal behavior. Likewise, the presence of several caregivers does not lead to greater individualization in care routines. Nor does there seem to be a clear link between the type of maternal behaviour and the type of twinship. The discussion deals with the mother's emotional investment, her personal capacity for adjusting to the "triadic motherhood' process, and the nature of the father's involvement in that process. Another consideration is the impact of the type of childcare pattern on twin development.

[The individualization of care practices for twins during the first year]

BACKGROUND

Mothers of twins have some difficulties to individualize their child-raising activities during the first year. This study was aimed to determine factors influencing such activities.

POPULATION AND METHODS

Thirty-seven pairs of twins born after 36 weeks of gestation and weighing more than 2,000 g were included in the study. Relationships between the parents and their children were studied from questionnaires concerning activities during the first trimester and the end of the first year of age. Each item concerning organization of meals and sleeping was graded 1 to 3 according to the degree of individualization of the care. Items concerning support of the mother by the father or other people were graded 1 to 3 according to the degree of this assistance. The physical and psychological status of the mother was also graded according to the presence or not of asthenia and/or depression. Home activities of the mother were also observed.

RESULTS

The state of the mother during the first few months had an impact on her mothering behavior: tired or depressed mothers tend to treat the twins collectively and simultaneously. No link was found between social, paternal or general familial support and the degree of individualization in the maternal behaviors.

CONCLUSIONS

Several factors can interfere with the psychological repercussions of a twin birth on the mother and subsequent psychoemotional development of children. Further studies are necessary to understand how each parent contributes to the organization of the family system.

[The question of cognitive activity in twins]

Cette étude nous a permis de mettre à jour les différents modes d'intéractions qu'une mère établit avec ses jumeaux, ainsi que les évolutions possibles qui en résultent. Mais, bien plus, nous avons modélisé la façon dont les jumeaux élaborent leurs structures de l'activité de connaissance en fonction des sollicitations du milieu, ainsi que l'interdépendance qui les caractérisent.

Grâce à des examens opératoires, réalisés sur une population de 14 couples âgés de 6 a 10 ans, nous avons mis à jour un décalage intra-couple au niveau de la genèse de ces mêmes structures de l'activité de connaissance. Nous nous sommes apercus que sur le plan de la genèse de l'organisation cognitive l'un des enfants a développé des structures figuratives, et l'autre des structures opératives lui permettant d'avoir une connaissance de la réalité plus étendue.

Les liens de dépendance, de fusion, unissant les jumeaux entre eux, pourraient être dus à un développement cognitif parasitaire. Ils génèrent un lien gémellaire à partir de défaillances structurales qui vont apparaître chez chacun d'eux, ce qui ne permet aucunement leur autonomisation réciproque.

Puisque des déficiences apparaissent dans les structures de l'activité de connaissance de ces enfants, les problèmes qu'ils recontrent pourraient trouver leur solution dans une remédiation cognitive opératoire.

Effects of early mother-twin relationships from birth to age 3, on twin bonding

Findings from an earlier phase of this research project clearly pointed to the mother's psychological adaptation inherent to the specificities of triadic interaction. Mothers' attitudes were classified in a typology ranging from "early twinness" where the two babies are treated as though they were a single unit, to attempt to create two dyadic relationships. The current program deals with the effects of the type of parent-child relationship at one year on the emergence of twin bonding. Sixty-eight families of twins (26MZ, 24DZ same sex, 18DZ different sex) are followed up from birth to the age of 3 using a method based on clinical interviews, videotaped observations, and questionnaires. The data cover mothers' rearing attitudes towards organization of babycare and outward signs of twinness, maternal representations of the relationship between the twins and observation of the children's interaction in a standardized game situation. The findings are discussed in terms of zygosity, and parental SCS.

Forms of family reorganization following the birth of twins

A survey questionnaire of 200 families with 2-month-old twins assesses the economic, social and psychological impact of the arrival of twins on family life. The study shows the extent of material difficulties mothers of twins are confronted with, and the ways they cope with them--recourse to mother's helpers, assistance from the father and other members of the family (analyzed in terms of parity and socioeconomic/cultural status), twincare organization strategies, and impact on the decision to stop working. The findings provide an overall picture of the real situation, a necessary prerequisite to an understanding of psychological problems.