Introduction

Abstract

The popularity of twins and non‐twins at school was studied longitudinally. Eight categories of pupils were distinguished by classifying them according to sex and twin type: monozygotic, dizygotic same‐sex, and dizygotic opposite‐sex as well as male and female non‐twins. Popularity ratings done by classmates on two different occasions at 11 and 13 years of age were analyzed. Differences in popularity between categories as well as changes in popularity over time were considered. The main results obtained seem to confirm and extend earlier findings reported in the literature about popularity differences between twins and non‐twins. For popularity change a relative similarity between categories was found significant, which implies that all categorical differences in popularity change can be better explained by the categorical differences in popularity at age 13 than by those at age 11.