Factors Influencing Identity Development of Dharwad PUC Students

The present study was conducted to study the factors influencing identity development of Dharwad PUC students. A total sample of 312 urban and rural PUC students in the age group of 16-18 years were randomly selected from four science coaching institutes of Dharwad taluk during the year 2016-2019. Differential and correlational research designs were used to know the difference and relationship between identity development and selected individual characteristics of PUC students. Purposive selection technique was used to select 10 to 15 per cent PUC students from each class of selected coaching institutes in which rural samples comprised of those students, who had completed their school education till Class-10 th in their village and had come for PUC studies in coaching institutes of Dharwad located in urban area. Dimension of identity development scale was used to assess identity development of PUC students and general information schedule was used to gather basic information like age, gender and class of respondents. Chi-square, t-test and ANOVA were used for statistical analysis. The results of the study revealed that, majority of the urban PUC students had average level of identity development (61.25 %) while, majority of rural PUC students had low (51.97 %) level of identity development. The findings also indicated that there was a significant association and difference between locality and identity development of students where, urban PUC students had significantly higher identity development than rural PUC students. There was also a significant influence of selected demographic factors like age, class and gender on identity development of PUC students. As rural PUC students had low level of identity development hence, there is a growing need to create maximum awareness among rural Pre-University College (PUC) students regarding importance of having unique individual identity during adolescence and various ways by which they can groom up their identity.