Volume 20, Issue 2 (3-2026)                   bjcp 2026, 20(2): 0-0 | Back to browse issues page

XML Persian Abstract Print

Inner Ambiguity, Outer Idols: Investigating the Predictive Role of Identity Styles in Celebrity Worship
Amirhosein Atarpur1 , Hamidreza Hasanabadi *2 , Hadi Keramati3
1- Master Student of Educational Psychology, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran
2- Associate Professor, Department of Educational Psychology, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran , dr_hassanabadi@khu.ac.ir
3- Associate Professor, Department of Educational Psychology, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran
Abstract:   (20 Views)
In today's modern societies, with the expansion of media immersion, the phenomenon of celebrity worship has grown, particularly during early adolescence, which can be a reaction to the identity crises of this period. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the relationship between identity processing styles and celebrity worship among junior high school students. This descriptive-correlational study was conducted on a sample of 352 male and female students in the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades in Mashhad during the academic year 2024–2025 (1403–1404), who were selected through cluster sampling. Data were collected using the Attitude toward Celebrities questionnaire and Berzonsky's Identity Styles Inventory (ISI-6G), and the data were analyzed through multiple linear regression. The findings indicated that identity styles altogether were able to explain 3% of the variance in the total score of celebrity worship. Among these, the diffuse-avoidant identity style showed a significant positive relationship, and the identity commitment component showed a significant inverse relationship with celebrity worship. However, no significant relationship was found between informational and normative styles and celebrity worship. In general conclusion, it can be stated that the extreme tendency and worship of celebrities in adolescence is primarily a compensatory mechanism against unresolved identity vacuums and crises. Adolescents who lack a firm referential framework termed "commitment" and follow a diffuse-avoidant style take refuge in idealized media models to fill their "empty self" and seek superficial values such as celebrity fandom to "compensate" for the voids they feel within themselves.
Keywords: Celebrity Worship, Identity, Identity Styles
Full-Text [DOCX 92 kb]   (1 Downloads)    
Type of Study: Research | Subject: Special
Received: 2026/07/6 | Revised: 2026/07/13 | Accepted: 2026/07/14 | Published: 2026/10/2
Send email to the article author

Rights and permissions
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.