Abstract. Twin psychology has been studied to a very limited extent. Only few remarkable peculiarities of the twins' development are known for sure, such as delayed intellectual development, language retardation with frequent cryptophasia, difficulties and fragility of self consciousness, reduced sociability.
The risk of depression, psychosis, or suicide in first-degree relatives of index cases of bipolar disorder is 20–25 percent. The same risk is found in fraternal twins, but it is about 70 percent in identical twins, leading to a monozygotic–dizygotic risk ratio of more than 3:1.
Young identical twins often seem to have a telepathic bond, but there's no evidence that it's real. Their similarities reveal something about the likeness of twins' minds, not a link between them. This is one of many findings from research into twins separated at birth and raised apart.
Being a twin has its benefits—tricking people, having a lifelong companion, sharing clothes—but it also has downsides. Many twins struggle to cultivate their own identities, while being so similar to one another. And that struggle lasts a lifetime, according to a recent study.
The hardest thing about having twins is…
“Managing the movement of two babies. Carrying them both up and down the stairs, getting them into the car, etc.” —Simeon R. “Often having to make one baby wait!” —Catharine D. “Being outnumbered—the logistics of two on one is definitely the hardest.
Age. According to the Office on Women's Health , women who are aged 30 years or older are more likely to conceive twins. The reason for this is that women of this age are more likely than younger women to release more than one egg during their reproductive cycle.
Beyond the usual rivalry and spats between brothers and sisters, there's the additional pressure and frustration that comes with always being lumped in with, and compared to, another person. From an early age, twins often feel intense competition as they struggle to forge their own identities beyond one half of a duo.
The study found that positive identity is stronger for nonidentical twins who are sexually different, while identical twins tend to experience a more negative identity status. The identical twins may particularly have trouble with identity development because their parents tend to treat them in the same manner.
Identical twins share a particularly intense bond. They are the result of one fertilized egg splitting into two, giving them identical DNA. (Fraternal twins are the result of two separate, genetically different fertilized eggs.) As a result, identical twins are as close as two people can be.
Twins thought to have lower social skills than singletons (Stewart, 2000). The main reason for this is the 'ultimate closeness' between twins (Klein, 2003). Starting from an early period, twins tend to spend time with their twin pairs rather than with their peers (Hay, 2006).
Longer lives
When analyzing the data by gender, the researchers found that female identical twins lived, on average, about 63.4 years, whereas female fraternal twins lived about 61.4 years and the general Danish female population lived about 58.8 years, Sharrow said.
When a twin dies after the embryonic period of gestation, the water within the twin's tissues, the amniotic fluid, and the placental tissue may be reabsorbed. This results in the flattening of the deceased twin from the pressure of the surviving twin.
A 2000 study of identical twins showed that when one member of the pair was narcissistic, there was a 77% chance the other would be too–something that was not true of fraternal twins, whose genes are no more similar than those of other siblings.
The twinless twin may have phantom pain or feel half dead. He or she may feel a need to represent both him or herself and the deceased twin or may even take on behaviors of the deceased twin. Dr. Raymond Brandt, founder of the Twinless Twins Support groups in 1986 states “once a twin, always a twin.” Dr.
Researchers from all over the world have found that when one identical twin is depressed, the other twin will also have depression 76% of the time. With fraternal pairs, the twin of a depressed person experiences depression only 19% of the time.
At age 7, the mean IQ score of twins was 5.3 points lower than that of singletons in the same family, and at age 9, the score was 6.0 points lower. The lower intelligence of twins in childhood may partly be a consequence of the reduced fetal growth and shorter gestations of twins, say the authors.
Monoamniotic-monochorionic Twins
These types of twins share a chorion, placenta, and an amniotic sac. This is the rarest type of twin, and it means a riskier pregnancy as the babies can get tangled in their own umbilical cords.
It's a common misconception that twins skip a generation in families. There is absolutely no evidence, other than circumstantial, that twins are more likely to occur every other generation.
Some twin researchers believe that a tightly bonded, close relationship between twins can actually impede their ability to develop outside friendships since peers have a harder time breaking the “twin code.” Since twins spend more time with each other than with their parents, siblings, and other peers, they often ...
In actuality, twins can suffer and be stifled by one another. While the twin attachment is strong, enduring, and very close, the twin bond can also be fraught with competition, obligation, anger, and resentment. Twins learn to take care of one another from birth.
Because twin DNA is practically identical when they are born, each must take on a journey of self-discovery to forge their own identity, which is different than those who are not twins (or as they are known in the twin community, "singletons.")
For women born 1870-1899, moms of twins averaged reproductive spans of 14 years 11 months versus 14 years for singleton moms. Both results were statistically significant. Moms of twins also were older at the time of their last birth.
Twins not only have a bestie from birth — they also live longer than singletons. And those two factors may be related, according to new University of Washington research.
However, for a given pregnancy, only the mother's genetics matter. Fraternal twins happen when two eggs are simultaneously fertilized instead of just one. A father's genes can't make a woman release two eggs.