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Mother-Twin Interaction During Early Childhood*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

M. Robin ,
D. Josse  and
C. Tourrette
M. Robin*
Affiliation:
INSERM Unit 187, Clamart, University of Poitiers, France
D. Josse
Affiliation:
INSERM Unit 187, Clamart, University of Poitiers, France
C. Tourrette
Affiliation:
Psychology Laboratory, University of Poitiers, France
*
Unité INSERM 187, 32 rue des Carnets, 92140 Clamart, France

Abstract

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The components of a research program focussing on early mother-twin interaction is described. Preliminary data obtained from a questionnaire at two months post term, cross-sectional observations at the age of one year, a follow-up study involving home observation and parental interviews from birth to the age of 3, point to the specificity of this triadic situation. During the first months of life, the burden of material tasks and the increase in baby care leave little time for starting a relationship based on pleasure or play. The impossibility of responding simultaneously to the needs of two babies and the difficuty of forming relationships on an individual basis foster early concerns for egalitarianism. The degree of physical resemblance between the babies creates the problem of differentiating them. To tell twins apart, mothers rapidly tend to rely on behavioral characteristics to which they attribute a genetic basis. In contrast, differences in development between the babies that introduce the eventuality of the dominance of one of the twins are often denied. In this highly specific situation, mothers arrive at personal solutions of adjustment over the first 3 years, manifest in a certain number of psychological and educational attitudes. Analysis of these maternal attitudes may help to shed light on some of the features of later psychoemotional development in twins.

Keywords

TwinsMother-twin interactionPsychological attitudeUpbringing
Type
Research Article
Information
Acta geneticae medicae et gemellologiae: twin research , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , April 1988 , pp. 151 - 159
Copyright
Copyright © The International Society for Twin Studies 1988

Footnotes

*

This study was conducted at the Antoine Béclère maternity hospital (Clamart, France), Dept. of Obstetrics and Gynecology (head: Professor E. Papiernik), and at the Psychology Laboratory of the University of Poitiers, France.

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