Late Adolescents' Perceptions of the Relevance of Domains of Identity

This study investigated both South African and Non South African isiXhosa and Other language speaking first year Psychology students' perceptions of the relevance of identity related domains at University of Fort Hare drawn from the Psychology first year students for 2008(N=135). The hypothesis was that late adolescents would evaluate the domains as significantly more relevant at this stage in their lives. Most of the domains were regarded as overwhelmingly relevant by the respondents. My career was highly regarded at 99% “Very important” by the respondents whilst Friendship with members of the opposite sex was regarded of least importance by 34% of the respondents. Some interactions were also noted along subgroup, gender and age variables. The importance of the findings of this study is the emphasis on the need to subdivide the adolescence stage of development when conducting research on identity. Developmental, sociopolitical and historical issues are likely to affect Adolescents differently at different phases in this stage of identity development and more significantly the impact of the college setting with its liberating and peer influences bearing on late adolescents.