Högskolan i Skövde

The aim was to explore how male and female older twins experience their lifelong relationship with one another. Method: Qualitative data consisting of 32 life stories of Swedish older (70+) identical and fraternal twins were analyzed with narrative analysis. Results: Both male and female older twins experienced their twin relationships as the emotionally closest as related to other sibling relationships. Female twins stressed open and frequent communication as an important aspect contributing to closeness in the twin relationship, whereas the male twins related closeness to doing activities together. Dependency was stressed as emotionally draining in the female twin relationships, meaning that both of the twin sisters had not separated emotionally from one another. In contrast, the male older twins talked about competition as an aspect that was emotionally draining. Males and females define emotional closeness differently. The relationship patterns for both female/male older twins remained stable over the life course.