Is there something special about twin families? A comparison of parenting styles in twin and non-twin families

Abstract

Twin comparisons offer a powerful quasi-experimental design to study the impact of the family of origin on children’s life chances. Yet, there are concerns about the generalizability of results obtained from twin studies because twin families are structurally different and twins have a genetic resemblance. We examine these concerns by comparing mothers’ reports on their parenting styles for twin and non-twin children between twin and non-twin families, as well as within twin families. We use two German studies for our comparisons: TwinLife and pairfam. Our results demonstrate that twins receive more differential treatment and more emotional warmth than non-twins; however, these differences are largely accounted for by age differences between children. Overall, our results indicate that results on parenting obtained from twin studies can be generalized to non-twin families.