Department of Biological Psychology, VU University Amsterdam, Van der Boechorststraat 1, 1081 BT, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
J Epidemiol Community Health. 2010 Jan;64(1):36-40. doi: 10.1136/jech.2009.091629.
A returning dilemma for families with multiple births is whether twins should share the same, or a parallel classroom, or in other words, whether they should be separated at school or not. This study investigated the effects of sharing a classroom during primary school on cognitive achievement in twins.
Subjects were 839 monozygotic and 1164 dizygotic twin pairs who were registered at birth at The Netherlands Twin Register. A prospective, longitudinal study design was used with educational achievement at age 12 years, measured with a standardised test (CITO test), as outcome measure.
Most twin pairs (72%) shared a classroom during their schooling, 19% were in separate, but parallel, classes, and 9% "partly" shared a classroom. Twins who were in parallel classrooms had higher CITO scores (mean 539.51; SD 8.12), compared to twins who shared a classroom (537.99; SD 8.52). When controlling for socioeconomic status, and externalising problems before starting primary school (age 3), there was no significant difference in educational achievement between separated and non-separated twin pairs (p = 0.138). In addition, there was no interaction with sex or zygosity of the twins (p = 0.798).
There is no difference in educational achievement between twins who share a classroom and twins who do not share a classroom during their primary school time. The choice of separation should be made by teachers, parents and their twin children, based on individual characteristics of a twin pair.
多胞胎家庭面临的一个反复出现的困境是，双胞胎是否应该在同一个班级，或者换句话说，他们是否应该在学校分开。本研究调查了小学期间共享教室对双胞胎认知成绩的影响。
研究对象为在荷兰双胞胎登记处出生时登记的 839 对同卵双胞胎和 1164 对异卵双胞胎。采用前瞻性、纵向研究设计，以 12 岁时的教育成就（用标准化测试（CITO 测试）衡量）为结果指标。
大多数双胞胎（72%）在上学期间共享一个教室，19%的双胞胎在分开但平行的班级中，9%的双胞胎“部分”共享一个教室。在平行教室里的双胞胎的 CITO 得分较高（平均 539.51；SD8.12），而共享教室的双胞胎的 CITO 得分较低（537.99；SD8.52）。在控制社会经济地位和入学前（3 岁）的外化问题后，分开和不分开的双胞胎之间的教育成就没有显著差异（p=0.138）。此外，双胞胎的性别或同卵性与这一结果没有交互作用（p=0.798）。
在小学期间共享教室和不共享教室的双胞胎之间，教育成就没有差异。分离的选择应该由教师、家长和他们的双胞胎孩子根据双胞胎的个体特征来做出。
