Celebrities more influential than parents, says new study

By SARAH CASSIDY

Celebrities such as Jordan, Kylie and David Beckham are becoming more influential to young people than their parents, teachers and even school friends, a new study suggested yesterday.

Star-struck youngsters are increasingly treating their famous role models as "pseudo friends" who form the subject of endless hours of playground gossip, the research found.

However, when hero worship turned into celebrity obsession, young fans could be left feeling lonely, isolated and lacking in social skills, the psychologists concluded.

Academics from Leicester and Coventry universities studied how celebrities influence the younger generation and their social networks. They found that in the past, parents, teachers and friends had always been the key influence on children.

However, more recently young people were being exposed to other major influences such as pop stars, actors and sporting heroes.

Dr John Maltby, of the University of Leicester, said: "Psychological theory suggests that people can make attachments to a number of different people as well as their parents.

"These attachments are thought to aid the individual in moving away from early attachments in different ways with the social world.

"A hundred years ago, the range of people to influence adolescent socialisation was restricted to peers, relatives, neighbours and teachers.

"Today, young people are exposed to an immense range of influential figures through television and radio, popular culture, print media and the internet."

The research, which studied a sample of 191 adolescents aged between 11 and 16, identified two forms of celebrity worship amongst the youngsters.

The first, labelled entertainment-social celebrity worship by researchers, would see children gossiping about their favourite boy band or reading about a particular film star in magazines.

The other, a more problematic form of celebrity worship, was dubbed intense-personal, where children might see their chosen famous person as their best friend or soulmate.

The research suggested that those adolescents who worshipped celebrities for entertainment and social reasons were group players and were self-confident.

However, those children who worship celebrities for personal reasons and in an intense way tended to be insecure, lacked social skills and told researchers that they felt lonely or isolated.

Dr Maltby said that the research showed that youngsters' could benefit from their interest in celebrities, but only if it was not allowed to go too far.

"The findings suggest that following celebrities for intense and personal reasons, and excluding other people from this interest, may reflect a lack of security and closeness in their life," he said.

"However, the findings also suggest positive outcomes and that for those people who share their interest in celebrities with other people that interest reflects a healthy development and interaction with the social world."

- INDEPENDENT