DOMAIN-SPECIFIC GENDER COMPARISONS IN IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT AMONG COLLEGE YOUTH - IDEOLOGY AND RELATIONSHIPS

Gender comparisons were conducted in six social domains of identity de velopment on 210 college students: occupation, religion, politics, dat ing, sex roles, and friendship. The identity research literature often combines domains to create more global estimates of identity developm ent. Such an approach may obscure differences among the domains, each of which may have different implications for different societal contex ts, and for males and females. Analyses were made for each domain, and for the combined ideological, interpersonal, and overall domain score s. Several gender differences were apparent when domain-specific analy ses were examined. Males were more likely to explore and commit in pol itics, whereas females were more likely to explore in sex roles and to commit in religion and dating. In politics, fewer males were in the d iffused status; in contrast, for dating and sex roles, there were fewe r females in the diffused status. However, when combined scores were e xamined, there were no gender differences in identity status. The resu lts suggest that some gender differences still remain in specific doma ins. The utility of including domain-specific analyses is suggested wh en gender comparisons are examined. Regardless of gender, more youth w ere diffused in political identity than in any other domain, suggestin g political apathy among today's college youth.