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

The main purpose of this study was to describe the relational structure of child twins on the basis of their mothers' representations of their behavio r 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 relation ship in these two life environments. Fifty-seven questionnaires were gather ed from mothers of twins three months after the children had begun preschoo l. A multiple correspondence analysis and an automatic classification of th e data pointed out several relational structures of the twin sibling relati onship, in contrast to the often stereotyped single representation of twins hip. A secondary aim was to associate the observed relational structures wi th (a) the type of twinship and the sex makeup of the twin pair (b) the mot hers' child-raising behaviors, which may or 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 of the type of twinship (monozygotic vs. same-sex dizygotic t wins). On the other hand, pairs composed of a boy and a girl exhibited a nu mber of specific characteristics. Parents who were in favor of short separa tions 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.