The Twin Relationship Questionnaire
Testing a Five-Factor Model From Early to Middle Childhood
Abstract
Abstract. Twins’ relationships evoke critical dilemmas for parents and teachers regarding raising and educating their twins. The current study provides comprehensive psychometric information about the Twin Relationship Questionnaire (TRQ; Fortuna, Goldner, & Knafo, 2010) as examined in nine samples, using mothers’ and fathers’ reports on 1,560 pairs of twins, tested in five measurement points from age 3 to age 9. On half of the subsamples, we conducted principal component analyses (PCA), whereas on the other subsamples, we conducted confirmatory factor analyses (CFA). Five factors were found in the PCA and confirmed by the CFA: conflict, closeness, dependence, dominance, and rivalry. All scales showed adequate internal consistencies and corrected item-total correlations. Correlation matrixes between scales demonstrate a triad of conflict, rivalry, and dominance scales, as opposed to the dyad of closeness and dependence. As evidence for the TRQ’s reliability and validity, we report the degree of agreement between mothers and fathers, the 10-month stability of mothers’ reports, and the associations of the TRQ subscales with experimentally assessed prosocial behaviors between the twins at age 6.5, and with the twins’ reports on their closeness at age 11. The replication of the findings across ages and raters reinforces the reliability and validity of the questionnaire.
References
1985). The psychology of twinship. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
(2013). The Longitudinal Israeli Study of Twins (LIST) – an integrative view of social development. Twin Research and Human Genetics, 16, 197–201. https://doi.org/10.1017/thg.2012.73
(2014). Latent variable modeling using R – a step-by-step guide. New York, NY: Routledge/Taylor & Francis.
(2011). Conflict, closeness and comfort: The inter-twin relationship as a risk factor for behavioral difficulties. Twin Research and Human Genetics, 14, 444–451. https://doi.org/10.1375/twin.14.5.444
(1997). The factorial structure of the sibling relationship inventory (SRI) in American and Dutch samples. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 14, 851–859. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407597146009
(1994). Contributions of family relationships and child temperaments to longitudinal variations in sibling relationship quality and sibling relationship styles. Journal of Family Psychology, 8, 274–286. https://doi.org/10.1037/0893-3200.8.3.274
(2010). Author guidelines for reporting scale development and validation results. Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, 1, 99–103. https://doi.org/10.5243/jsswr.2010.8
(2005). Best practices in exploratory factor analysis: Four recommendations for getting the most from your analysis. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 10, 1–9. http://pareonline.net/getvn.asp?v=10&n=7
(2010). Wired to be social: The ontogeny of human Interaction. PLoS One, 5, e13199. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0013199
(2010). Factorial and construct validity of the sibling relationship questionnaire. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 26, 277–283. https://doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759/a000037
(1999). Siblings, parents, and partners: Family relationships within a longitudinal community study. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 40, 1025–1037. https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-7610.00521
(2003). Sibling differentiation: Sibling and parent relationship trajectories in adolescence. Child Development, 74, 1261–1274. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00606
(2010). Twin Relationships: A comparison across monozygotic twins, dizygotic twins, and nontwin siblings in early childhood. Family Science, 1, 205–211. https://doi.org/10.1080/19424620.2010.569367
(2001). Examining the dimensions of intimacy in twin and peer relationships. Twin Research, 4, 443–452. https://doi.org/10.1375/twin.4.6.443
(2012). Twin and sibling attachment in a nationally representative sample. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 38, 308–316. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167211432936
(1985). Children’s perceptions of the qualities of sibling relationships. Child Development, 56, 448–461. https://doi.org/10.2307/1129733
(2003). Calculating, interpreting, and reporting Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient for Likert-type scales, Midwest Research-to-Practice Conference in Adult, Continuing, and Community Education. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1805/344
(2015). Twins and kindergarten separation: Divergent beliefs of principals, teachers, parents, and twins. Educational Policy, 29, 583–616. https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904813510778
(2006). Meeting the educational needs of multiple birth children. Early Human Development, 82, 397–403. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2006.03.010
(2008). Structural equation modeling: Guidelines for determining model fit. Electronic Journal of Business Research Methods, 6, 53–60. Retrieved from https://arrow.dit.ie/libart/4/
(1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling, 6, 1–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118
(2014).
(Measurement: Reliability, construct validation, and scale construction . In H. T. ReisC. M. JuddEds., Handbook of research methods in social and personality psychology (pp. 473–503). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.1975). Psychoanalysis–science and research: Twin studies as a paradigm. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 23, 3–31. https://doi.org/10.1177/000306517502300101
(1983). Close relationships. New York, NY: Freeman.
(2006). The Longitudinal Israeli Study of Twins (LIST): Children’s social development as influenced by genetics, abilities, and socialization. Twin Research and Human Genetics, 9, 791–798. https://doi.org/10.1375/twin.9.6.791
(1966). Twins and twin relations. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago press.
(1995). Parental perceptions of children’s sibling relationships. Family Relations, 44, 95–103. https://doi.org/10.2307/584746
(1998). Cooperation and competition as a function of zygosity in 7- to 9-year-old twins. Evolution and Human Behavior, 19, 397–411. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1090-5138(98)00034-8
(1977). Do parents create, or respond to, differences in twins? Developmental Psychology, 13, 456–459. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.13.5.456
(1967). Cooperative and competitive motivation of children in three Mexican sub-cultures. Psychological Reports, 20, 1307–1320. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1967.20.3c.1307
(2013). A general and simple method for obtaining R2 from generalized linear mixed-effects models. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 4, 133–142. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2041-210x.2012.00261.x
(2002). Twin relationship in old age: A developmental perspective. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 18, 155–177. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407502192001
(2005). Co-twin dependence, social interactions, and academic achievement: A population-based study. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 22, 519–541. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407505054521
(2002). Twins: From fetus to child. New York, NY: Psychology Press.
(2015). Confirmatory factor analysis as a tool in research using questionnaires: A critique. Comprehensive Psychology, 4, 10. https://doi.org/10.2466/03.CP.4.10
(1998). Mothers’ representations of their 13-month-old twins and child-raising attitudes. Infant Mental Health Journal, 19, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1097-0355(199821)19:1<1::AID-IMHJ1>3.0.CO;2-T
(1991). Annotation: Growing up as a twin: Twin-singleton differences in psychological development. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 32, 885–895. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.1991.tb01916.x
(1983). Identity and intimacy in twins. New York, NY: Praeger.
(2015). Attachment to the romantic partner and sibling: Attachment hierarchies of twins and non-twin siblings. Interpersona, 9, 169–183. https://doi.org/10.5964/ijpr.v9i2.195
(2018).
(Twin rivalry in childhood . In S. HartN. A. JonesEds., The psychology of rivalry (pp. 111–129). New York, NY: Nova Science.1984). Cooperation, competition, and altruism within twin sets: A reappraisal. Ethology and Sociobiology, 5, 163–177. https://doi.org/10.1016/0162-3095(84)90021-9
(2002). Co-conspirators and double-dealers: A twin film analysis. Personality and Individual Differences, 33, 621–631. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(01)00176-3
(1999). Cooperation and competition between twins: Findings from a Prisoner’s Dilemma Game. Evolution and Human Behavior, 20, 29–51. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1090-5138(98)00039-7
(2003). Meeting one’s twin: Perceived social closeness and familiarity. Evolutionary Psychology, 1, 70–95. https://doi.org/10.1177/147470490300100105
(1992). Twins in the classroom: School policy issues and recommendations. Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation, 3, 69–84. https://doi.org/10.1207/s1532768xjepc0301_5
(1992). Twins and their development. Rockville, MD: BJE Press.
(1993). Sibling temperaments, conflict, warmth, and role asymmetry. Child Development, 64, 1786–1800. https://doi.org/10.2307/1131469
(2006). The nature of adult twin relationships: An attachment-theoretical perspective. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 78–93. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.90.1.78
(1989). Treating twins as individuals: Maternal educative practices. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 4, 269–283. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03172610
(2005).
(Positive indicators of sibling relationship quality: The sibling inventory of behavior . In K. A. MooreL. H. LippmanEds., What do children need to flourish: Conceptualizing and measuring indicators of positive development (pp. 203–219). New York, NY: Springer Science+Business Media.1934). Mutual intimacy in twins. Character and Personality, 2, 293–309. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.1934.tb02106.x
(2018). Prosocial and self‐interested intra‐twin pair behavior in monozygotic and dizygotic twins in the early to middle childhood transition. Developmental Science, 21, e12665. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12665
(1988). The multidimensional scale of perceived social support. Journal of personality assessment, 52, 30–41. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa5201_2
(