(HealthScoutNews) -- Identical twins may be alike in most every way, but their levels of emotional distress can differ depending on their religious beliefs and their relationships with their mothers and teachers.

That's what a study in the November-December issue of Child Development found.

The study was done by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

They looked at 289 pairs of identical twins, average age 16.2 years, whose emotional distress was measured by depressive symptoms such as hopelessness and feelings of guilt. There were similar numbers of male and female twin pairs. They came from different ethnic groups, and most were from intact families.

The study found that in only 11 percent of the pairs did both twins have the same levels of emotional distress.

In the other pairs, the twin with less distress tended to be closer to his or her mother, as well as teachers, and attended church more often. Girls were less distressed when they and their twin sisters shared positive feelings about teachers, the study says.

In low-income families, twins given more autonomy by their parents than their twin siblings had less emotional distress.

The researchers say the differences in emotional distress between twins are partly the result of social differences, where the twins have different relationships inside and outside the home.

Also, twins may actively choose settings that let them create separate sets of experiences from each other, the researchers say.

More information

The U.S. National Library of Medicine has more about twins, triplets and multiple births.

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