Aimed at monozygotic and dizygotic twin children, this study examines the relationship between their temperament and their mothers' rearing attitudes and also investigates the difference in their temperament and the mothers' breeding attitudes by sex,...
Aimed at monozygotic and dizygotic twin children, this study examines the relationship between their temperament and their mothers' rearing attitudes and also investigates the difference in their temperament and the mothers' breeding attitudes by sex, birth order, age. The ultimate goal is to raise understanding of twins on the recent increase in birthrate and also to understand their temperament and the mothers' upbring attitudes which affect children's adaptation and development.
This study involves mothers sharing information who have memberships of the Internet portal site(Daum cafe) and another 143 mothers nationwide with twin children(62 pairs of monozygotic twins and 81 pairs of dizygotic counterparts) aged full 3 to 5. The survey method is as follows: a program is made for a questionnaire window to be on show if URL is entered in the Internet address window so that the respondents involved can answer the questionnaire on the Web in person. And, among them, only the data of final questionnaire respondents whose questionnaires are checked and who are given additional questions are used as data for analysis. Also, the questionnaires are drawn up for mothers with twin children to twice complete the same questionnaires of temperament(20 questionnaires), maternal caring attitudes(25 questionnaires), asking about their respective twins.
The measurement instrument used in this study is like this. EAS made by Buss & Plomin(1984) was used to measure twins' temperament and 'Mothers' Rearing Attitude Scale' developed by Cheon Hee-young(1993) was used to measure mothers' rearing attitudes. Next, Zygosity determination developed by Ooki & Asaka(1993) was used to measure zygosity.
The data collected in this study are analyzed using SPSS statistic program. The frequency and percentage were worked out in order to investigate general properties in the socio-demographic background of subjects under study. And Cronbach's α coefficient were worked out in order to examine the reliability test and general tendencies of each scale and the mean and standard deviation as well are extracted. Also, correlation analysis, t-test and One-way ANOVA were conducted in order to test the research questions of this study.
The results showed in this study are summarized as follows:
First, the relationship between twins' temperament and the motherly caring attitudes showed partially meaningful result in both monozygotic and dizygotic twins with little description. In case of the monozygotic twins, emotionality showed negative correlation with warm-heartedness among the caring attitudes and positive correlation with controllability. And emotionality of the dizygotic twins showed positive correlation with controlling caring attitudes. Namely, the higher the twin children's negative emotional response, the higher the mothers' controlling attitudes and the lower the warm-hearted caring attitudes.
Secondly, in the difference in temperament by twins' sex, birth order, and age did both monozygotic and dizygotic twins show meaningful result with regard to the difference by sex. When it comes to difference by sex, boys showed more amount of the whole activity than girls. It was confirmed that the difference by birth order shows no meaningful difference and that there is hereditary factor in temperament, considering that such difference of the monozygotic twins showed less difference than the dizygotic counterparts.
Thirdly, in the difference in maternal upbringing attitudes by twins' sex, birth order, and age did boys show more warm-hearted caring attitudes than girls in case of the monozygotic twins alone and in terms of the difference by sex. In the difference by birth order, both monozygotic twins and dizygotic counterparts showed meaningful difference in the warm-heartedness among the caring attitudes and the dizygotic twins show higher t-value than monozygotic counterparts. This is in the same context as the difference in temperament mentioned above and suggests that temperament difference creates difference in the maternal rearing attitudes. And the difference in caring attitudes by age shows is shown to be totally inconsistent.
Accordingly, this study aids understanding of twin children and provides important data essential to verifying innateness of temperament and difference in maternal breeding attitudes by the temperament. This also provides information beneficial to psychological diagnostic situation or therapeutic interference by correctly understanding temperament and parental caring attitudes affecting children's adaptation and development.