No effect of classroom sharing on educational achievement in twins: a prospective, longitudinal cohort study.
BACKGROUND
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.


METHODS
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.


RESULTS
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).


CONCLUSIONS
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.
Polderman
T J C
TJ
Department of Biological Psychology, VU University Amsterdam, Van der Boechorststraat 1, 1081 BT, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. jc.polderman@psy.vu.nl
Bartels
M
M
Verhulst
F C
FC
Huizink
A C
AC
van Beijsterveldt
C E M
CE
Boomsma
D I
DI
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012574:Schools; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013334:Students; D014429:Twins, Dizygotic; D014430:Twins, Monozygotic