VOCATIONAL IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT - ITS RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER IDENTITY DOMAINS AND TO OVERALL IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT

This article examines age-related trends in general ideological identi ty status and identity in the domains of vocation, religion, lifestyle , and politics during early adolescence and relationships between adol escent vocational identity and identities in the other domains. A cros s-sectional study of 1,099 high school students in Grades 7 through 12 revealed a developmental progression in adolescent vocational identit y characterized by an increase in the proportion of students classifie d as identity achieved and moratorium and a decrease in the proportion of students classified as identity diffused and foreclosed. Statuses in the general ideological, religious, lifestyle, and political identi ty domains appeared to be related to, but clearly lagged behind, ident ity status development in the domain of vocation. No sex differences w ere found in the age-related trends in vocational identity status and its relationships with the other identity domains. The results are int erpreted as indicative of the leading role of vocational development i n adolescent identity formation. Applicability of the construct of voc ational identity status to career assessment is discussed.