PROJECT PAGE
Texas Twin Project
The Texas Twin Project is an ongoing population-based study of child and adolescent twins (~8-18 years old) and higher order multiples living in Austin, TX and surrounding suburban and rural areas. The Texas Twin Project was designed to test and elucidate gene-environment interplay in cognitive development, personality development, psychopathology, and behavioral risk. The majority of participants are assessed in-person during laboratory visits, in which they provide a range of self-report and objective testing data and biomarkers (e.g. hair and salivary hormones, DNA). Participants and their parents provide detailed information on social and environmental contexts. Data are further integrated with administrative data from the Texas Education Agency and the American Community Survey/US Census. The sample is socioeconomically and racially and ethnically diverse. Approximately one third of families have receive some form of means-tested public assistance, such as food stamps, since the time that the twins were born. Approximately 60% of the sample is non-Hispanic white, with Latinx composing the largest racial or ethnic minority subgroup.
Data are also available for a mail/web-based longitudinal study of twins ages 0-6 years known as the Texas “tiny” Twin Project, which is no longer actively collecting data.
Principal Investigator(s): Dr. Elliot Tucker-Drob and Dr. Paige Harden
General Information
Country of Data Collection: USA
Years of Data Collection: 2009-present
Study Status: Ongoing for Texas Twin Project; Completed for Texas “tiny” Twin Project
Total Number of Assessments Completed: Variable-retest-interval design (waves range from 1-4 per participant in the Texas Twin Project, and from 1-11 per participant in the Texas “tiny” Twin Project)
Approx. Retention Rate:
Sample
Composition: Community sample; Family study (i.e., children, parents); Twin study
Note: There are two longitudinal samples of twins: 1) the Texas Twin Project (twins aged ~8-18), and 2) the Texas “tiny” Twin Project (twins aged 0-6).
Texas Twin Project
Approximately 3,000 individual twins ages ~8-18 have been measured at least once. Ongoing longitudinal data collection is conducted according to a variable-retest-interval design in which subsets of participants are invited to return for repeated measures separated by one or more years. This design is particularly advantageous for modeling linear and nonlinear change within an accelerated longitudinal framework.
Sex
SES
Race/Ethnicity
Texas “tiny” Twin Project
Data are available for over 600 individual twins or multiples ages 0 to 6 years, over 250 of whom provided at least one additional wave of longitudinal data, for a total of approximately 1400 person-waves of data. Eligibility for follow-up waves was determined by age at last wave. In order to capture more rapid pace of development during infancy compared to early childhood, repeated-assessments were spaced more closely together at younger ages, and further apart at older ages.
Sex
SES
Race/Ethnicity
Personality Data
Texas Twin Project
Child Sample
Construct
Big Five
Grit
Need for Cognition
Intellectual Self-Concept
Mastery Orientation
Performance Orientation
Intelligence Mindset
Impulse Control
Motivation
Callous-Unemotional Traits
Disinhibition
Future Orientation
Risk Perception
Self-Regulation
Scale
Big Five Inventory
Grit Scale for Children
Need for Cognition Scale
MAPS (Briley et al, 2014)
PALS (Midgley et al, 2000)
PALS (Midgley et al, 2000)
Growth Mindset Scale
Zuckerman Impulsivity Scale
1-item observational data
Inventory of C-U Traits
UPPS Scale
Future Orientation Scale
Risk Perception Scale
Various tasks
Waves
T1-T4
T1-T4
T1-T4
T1-T4
T1-T4
T1-T4
T1-T4
T1-T4
T1-T4
T1-T4
T1-T4
T1-T4
T1-T4
T1-T4
Administered To
~8-18 year olds
~8-13 year olds
~8-13 year olds
~8-13 year olds
~8-13 year olds
~8-13 year olds
~8-13 year olds
~8-13 year olds
~8-13 year olds
~14-18 year olds
~14-18 year olds
~14-18 year olds
~14-18 year olds
~8-18 year olds
Method
Self-, Parent-Report
Self-Report
Self-Report
Self-Report
Self-Report
Self-Report
Self-Report
Self-Report
Experimenter Rating
Self-Report
Self-Report
Self-Report
Self-Report
Task-based
Parent Sample
Construct
Big Five
Scale
Big Five Inventory
Waves
T1-T4
Method
Self-Report
Texas “tiny” Twin Project
Construct
Internalizing
Externalizing
Self-Regulation
Scale
Child Behavior Checklist
Child Behavior Checklist
Ages and Stages Questionnaire
Waves
T1-T11
T1-T11
T1-T11
Administered About
0-6 year olds
0-6 year olds
0-6 year olds
Method
Parent-Report
Parent-Report
Parent-Report
academic/school
Behavioral and cognitive tasks
cognitive ability/iq
culture
dna/dna methylation
hair and salivary hormones
mental health
neighborhood
parenting
physical health/bmi
psychophysiology
relationship functioning
zygosity
Data Access
Project Website: https://sites.la.utexas.edu/twinproject/
Codebook Available Online: No
Data Available Online: No
Project Proposal Required to Use Data: Yes, but first email PI contacts to discuss your ideas and how they intersect with ongoing Texas Twin Project research and collaborations
Contact
Contact: Dr. Elliot Tucker-Drob (tuckerdrob@utexas.edu) and Dr. Paige Harden (harden@utexas.edu)