Twins likely victims

Press, 22 September 1984, Page 14

Twins likely victims

PA Montreal ’ Infant twins are two and a half times more J likely to be victims of * child abuse than other ’ babies, according to a ; study of a Kentucky medi- : cal centre’s abuse and neglect registry. ; There were 29 individual twins among the 1155 ; entries in the University ' of Kentucky medical centre registry of children ; abused or at risk for abuse, about 23 per cent ’ more than the expected number of twins based on birth patterns. When the 1983 sample ; group was reduced to the 310 children aged three or younger who were actually abused, researchers found 16 individual twins who had been victimised. 1 Statistically, there should have been only 6.2 abused twins, said one of the authors of the study, Dr Henry Nelson, of the University’s College of ' Medicine. . ' In an interview at the fifth international congress on child abuse and neglect where the study was presented, Dr Nelson said stress appeared to be a critical factor. ’

“If there are unrealistic expectations by parents about an infant, say about sleeping instead of crying, they’re obviously double with twins.” .

Dr Nelson, himself a father of twins, said his study indicated that financial pressures could also play a part. “Think of how much a child can cost — a high chair, a crib, a car seat, food. Well, with twins all that is doubled,” he said.

“The stress factor is especially relevant in cases where parents don’t find out that twins are coming until a short time before birth.”

Twins were particularly prone to characteristics which put infants at risk for abuse, including premature birth and birth defects. 1 .

In the Kentucky study, the twins were born pre- i maturely in nearly 70 per cent of the cases and 15 of the 16 abused twins were born underweight, Dr Nelson said. ■ X'2 The researcher said his data also indicated a higher incidence of abuse in the families of twins . similarly named — such f as ; James and Jane or Dick and Rick. f (

Often, people who named their twins similarly thought of them more as a group, as a package, rather than as two unique individuals, Dr Nelson said. . ■