Abstract
The association of celebrity worship with mental health concerns has been extensively studied in the past two decades. However, there is a lack of research on basic demographic characteristics that can potentially alter the link between celebrity admiration and different aspects of mental health. The present study investigates the possible moderating role of gender, age, and opposite/same-gender celebrity selection on the association of celebrity worship with general well-being, self-esteem and perceived daytime sleepiness. A total of 1763 Hungarian adults (66.42% men, Mage = 37.2 years, SD = 11.4) completed an online survey focusing on attitudes and behaviors relating to celebrities and mental well-being. The moderation analysis showed that (i) the negative association between celebrity worship and self-esteem was slightly stronger for women than for men, and (ii) the association between celebrity worship and perceived daytime sleepiness was slightly stronger for younger individuals than for older ones. Although both gender and age were particularly weak moderators, these results draw the attention to some potential individual differences when interpreting links between celebrity worship and different aspects of mental health.
Highlights
The influential role of celebrities on mass media consumers’ attitudes and behavior has generated considerable research in the past decades (Fraser and Brown, 2002; Dix et al, 2010; Nisbett and DeWalt, 2016)
Drawing on previous findings on the association of celebrity worship with demographic characteristics and psychological well-being, the present study investigates the potential moderating role of basic demographic variables such as gender, age and opposite/samegender celebrity worship on the association between celebrity worship and three relevant indicators of subjective well-being
Drawing upon previous findings on the association between celebrity worship and mental health, this study investigated the possible moderator role of gender, age and opposite/same-gender celebrity selection on the association between celebrity worship and some relevant indicators of subjective well-being on a relatively large sample of fans
Summary
The influential role of celebrities on mass media consumers’ attitudes and behavior has generated considerable research in the past decades (Fraser and Brown, 2002; Dix et al, 2010; Nisbett and DeWalt, 2016). Drawing on previous findings on the association of celebrity worship with demographic characteristics and psychological well-being, the present study investigates the potential moderating role of basic demographic variables such as gender, age and opposite/samegender celebrity worship on the association between celebrity worship and three relevant indicators of subjective well-being (i.e., general well-being, self-esteem, and perceived daytime sleepiness). Low self-esteem was consistently associated with poorer mental health at different stages of adulthood (Orth et al, 2009) Based upon these results, it can be hypothesized that the relationship between celebrity worship and self-esteem will be stronger for women than for men, while the strength of this association will be similar across the adult lifespan in the present sample. Considering the substantial gender differences in all constructs explored in the present study, the following hypothesis is proposed: H1: Gender will moderate the association of celebrity worship with general well-being, self-esteem, and perceived daytime sleepiness. The following hypothesis is proposed: H3: Opposite/same-gender celebrity worship will not moderate the association of celebrity worship with general well-being, selfesteem, and perceived daytime sleepiness
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