The social construction of twinship II

we two together

pp. 101-116

in: Elizabeth A. Stewart, Exploring twins, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2003

Abstract

Having considered the social consequences of twinship as they affect the family, parents and siblings of twins, we now turn to examine some social consequences for the twins themselves. The baseline for examining the repercussions of twinship is often comparison with singletons. The result of this comparison is that twins are thought to be variously "disadvantaged" in relation to singletons because of the very fact that twins come in pairs. We first consider some general disadvantages, then move on to language development, followed by twins in the educational system, and conclude with a discussion of arguably the greatest trauma for any twin, the death of the other.