scholarly journals Compatibility and Conflict: Negotiation of Relationships by Dizygotic Same-Sex Twin Girls

2006 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Danby ◽  
Karen Thorpe

AbstractThis article conceptualizes the child as having active agency in the constructions of their social worlds, and reports on a study that understands the twin experiences from the perspectives of the twins. It examines how twins account for their relationships with their co-twins. The study drew on accounts of 60 twin children — 10 monozygotic (MZ), 10 dizygotic (DZ) same-sex, 10 DZ opposite-sex pairs — aged 5 to 10 years and their parent (n = 30). The children engaged in a sticker activity in which they represented their friendships, including their friendship with their co-twin. Using the task as a resource, the children were asked about their friends, the attributes of friendship and examples of everyday friendships encounters. These were audio-recorded and transcribed. Further, parents completed a questionnaire that provided demographic information and asked parents about the children's social experiences including twin children's time spent together, shared interests and their co-twin relationship. Using data from the pictorial representation from the sticker task and parent questionnaires, differences in relationship between MZ, DZ same-sex and DZ opposite-sex twins were examined and used to select a smaller sample for detailed study. DZ same-sex twins tended to view their co-twin less favorably and there was a nonsignificant trend in which conflict was elevated, compared to the other two groups. Based on these findings, the transcripts selected for analysis focuses on the DZ same-sex girls. The girls reported that they had differences of thought, activity and self-presentation. Conflict, competition and challenge as types of social interaction were described, suggesting that the everyday relationship of the twin with her co-twin is always being negotiated and realigned. Evident here is the complexity of social interactions in which the twins engaged everyday with each other.

1999 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 413-425 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Tjaden ◽  
Nancy Thoennes ◽  
Christine J. Allison

Using data from a nationally representative telephone survey that was conducted from November 1995 to May 1996, this study compares lifetime experiences with violent victimization among men and women with a history of same-sex cohabitation and their counterparts with a history of marriage and/or opposite-sex cohabitation only. The study found that respondents who had lived with a same-sex intimate partner were significantly more likely than respondents who had married or lived with an opposite-sex partner only to have been: (a) raped as minors and adults; (b) physically assaulted as children by adult caretakers; and (c) physically assaulted as adults by all types of perpetrators, including intimate partners. The study also confirms previous reports that intimate partner violence is more prevalent among gay male couples than heterosexual couples. However, it contradicts reports that intimate partner violence is more prevalent among lesbian couples than heterosexual couples. Overall study findings suggest that intimate partner violence is perpetrated primarily by men, whether against same-sex or opposite-sex partners.


1977 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 273-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phoebe Kazdin Schnitzer

The relationship of Horner's (1968) measure of fear of success to the perception of interpersonal relationships is investigated in five samples of male and female college students. In addition to Horner's cue, the different samples wrote stories to a variety of cues describing aspects of same-sex and opposite-sex friendships. Fear-of-success subjects of both sexes significantly more often described dangers, as opposed to pleasures, in opposite-sex relationships. Fear-of-success female subjects significantly more often described same-sex disagreements as destructive of friendships. Results are discussed in terms of sex similarities and differences; the usefulness of fear of success as a cross-sex personality variable is explored.


2005 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 594-601 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sally J. Wadsworth ◽  
John C. DeFries

AbstractAlthough it has been suggested that genetic influences on reading difficulties may differ in boys and girls, results obtained from previous analyses of data from same-sex twin pairs have failed to provide evidence for a differential genetic etiology of reading disability (RD) as a function of gender. However, results of a recent study in which data from both same-sex and opposite-sex twin pairs were analyzed indicated a higher heritability for reading difficulties in boys (Harlaar et al., 2005). Because the current sample of twin pairs tested in the Colorado Learning Disabilities Research Center is substantially larger than that analyzed for our previous report (Wadsworth et al., 2000), this hypothesis was tested more rigorously using data from both same-sex and opposite-sex twin pairs in our current augmented sample. Composite reading scores from 634 twin pairs were subjected to DeFries–Fulker sex-limitation analysis using the model-fitting approach of Purcell and Sham (2003). Analysis of data from the combined sample of male and female twins indicated that genetic influences account for more than half the proband reading deficit (h2g = .58). When this model was extended to test for gender differences in the magnitude of genetic influences on RD, h2g estimates were somewhat higher for females than for males (.63 and .53, respectively), but the difference was nonsignificant (p > .3). A test for qualitative gender differences was also nonsignificant. Thus, these results provide little evidence for a differential genetic etiology of RD in boys and girls.


2002 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 263-267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard J. Rose ◽  
Jaakko Kaprio ◽  
Torsten Winter ◽  
Danielle M. Dick ◽  
Richard J. Viken ◽  
...  

Are sisters of twin brothers behaviorally or physiologically masculinized? Prenatal exposure to their brothers' androgens and postnatal socialization experiences unique to girls growing up with twin brothers might influence their attitudes, pubertal development, and reproductive histories. To investigate, we studied age- and cohort-matched samples of Finnish sisters from same-sex and opposite-sex twin pairs. Using data from two ongoing longitudinal studies of consecutive birth cohorts of Finnish twins, we assessed pubertal development at ages 11 and 14 and endorsement of attitudes associated with femininity at age 16. We also studied fertility in Finnish women from same- and opposite-sex twin pairs born from 1958 through 1971, obtaining information on their child-bearing histories when they were ages 15 to 28. Results of each comparison were unambiguously negative: There was no evidence of differences between sisters from same- and opposite-sex twin pairs, and thus, no evidence of either androgenization or cross-sex socialization.


2021 ◽  
pp. 0192513X2199318
Author(s):  
M. José González ◽  
İbrahim Sönmez

Using data from the Spanish Labor Force Survey between 2006 and 2018, we explore whether sexual orientation causes wage differences for partnered women and men in Spain. The study confirms that men in same-sex couples significantly earn less than men in opposite-sex couples, confirming our hypothesis for the “hegemonic masculinity premium.” Women in same-sex couples also outearn women in opposite-sex couples, but this effect disappears after controlling for differences in human capital characteristics. Despite the high degree of social acceptance of homosexuality in Spain, partnered gay men are not able to avoid the negative earnings effects of discrimination in the labor market.


2007 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 597-603 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria M. Morales-Suárez-Varela ◽  
Bodil Hammer Bech ◽  
Kaare Christensen ◽  
Jorn Olsen

AbstractTwinning rates have changed substantially over time for reasons that are only partly known. In this study we studied smoking, coffee and alcohol intake, and their possible interaction with obesity as potential determinants of twinning rates using data from the Danish National Birth Cohort between 1996 and 2002. We identified 82,985 pregnancies: 81,954 singleton and 1031 twins. For the twins we had data to classify 121 as monozygotic, 189 dizygotic (same sex), 313 dizygotic (opposite sex) but, 408 were of the same sex but with unknown zygosity. All mothers were interviewed about their prepregnancy weight and height, coffee and alcohol intake, smoking habits, and potential confounding factors at early stages of pregnancy. We identified smoking (> 10 cigarettes/day) as a possible determinant of twinning, particularly for dizygotic twinning rates (same sex) and furthermore corroborated that obesity and the mother's age are strong correlates of twinning. Others have found coffee intake to increase twinning rates but that is not seen in these data.


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