Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-mp689 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T13:59:03.439Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Childhood Sex-Role Behaviors: Similarities and Differences in Twins

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

P.H. Elizabeth  and
R. Green
P.H. Elizabeth*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, State University of New Yorkat Stony Brook
R. Green
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, State University of New Yorkat Stony Brook
*
Department of Psychology, Alfred University, Alfred, NY 14802, USA

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Parents of 702 twin pairs, ages 4 through 12, completed a sex-role behavioral preference questionnaire for each cotwin. Data were analyzed to determine the effects of gender, zygosity, and age on behavioral similarities and differences between cotwins. Among same-sex cotwins, male MZ pairs were reported to behave the most similarly. Girl-boy pairs were the most dissimilar. Sex and zygosity contributed significantly to co-twin behavioral differences, with female pairs varying more on sex-typed behaviors than male pairs and DZ pairs varying more than MZ pairs. Age of twins was not a major source of differences within twin pairs.

Keywords

Sex-rolesPsychosexual developmentSex-typed behaviorsGender identityTwin zygosity effect
Type
Twin Development and Temperament
Information
Acta geneticae medicae et gemellologiae: twin research , Volume 33 , Issue 2 , April 1984 , pp. 173 - 179
Copyright
Copyright © The International Society for Twin Studies 1984

References

REFERENCES

1.Brown, A, Stafford, RE, Vandenberg, SG (1967): Twins: behavioral differences. Child Dev 38: 1055–1064.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
2.Chilton, B (1972): Psychosexual development in twins. J Biosoc Sci 4:277–286.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
3.Green, R (1974): Sexual Identity Conflict in Children and Adults. New York: Basic Books; London: Gerald Duckworth.Google Scholar
4.Green, R (1976): Masculinity and femininity during boyhood: 100 families. In Davis, A (ed): Child Personality and Psychopathology. New York: John Wiley.Google Scholar
5.Green, R, Williams, K, Harper, J (1980): Cross-sex identity: peer group integration and the double standard of childhood sex typing. In Samson, JM (ed): Enfance et Sexualité/Childhood and Sexuality. Montreal: les Editions Etudes Vivantes.Google Scholar
6.Lyon, MR (1961): Gene action in the X chromosome of the mouse (mus musculus L). Nature 190:372.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
7.Maccoby, E, Jacklin, C (1974): The Psychology of Sex Differences. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
8.Matheny, AP, Wilson, RS, Dolan, AB (1975): Relations between twins' similarity of appearance and behavioral similarity: testing an assumption. Behav Genet 6:343–351.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9.Torgersen, AM, Kringlen, E (1978): Genetic aspects of temperamental differences in twins. J Am Acad Child Psychiatry 17:433–444.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
10.Vandenberg, SG (1962): Twin data in support of the Lyon hypothesis. Nature 194:505–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
11.Wilson, RS, Brown, AM, Matheny, AP (1971): Emergence and persistence of behavioral differences in twins. Child Dev 42:1381–1398.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed