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UNEMPLOYMENT, PARENTAL NEGLIGENCE AND PROBLEMATIC INTERNET USE ON CELEBRITY WORSHIP SYNDROME AMONG NAIJA FANS.

(1) Ojo Adeshina Akinwumi (PhD) (2) Moni-Jesu Akinpelu (3) Oluwakemi Patricia Fernandez (4) Ireti Phillip Fatoye (5) AdeniyiBunmi Lead City University, Ibadan, Nigeria. Telephone: +2348074425271 Email: [email protected]

ABSTRACT Celebrity worship, which as an obsessive fascination with a famous person, has been associated with several behavioural problems such as; problematic Internet use and parental negligence and symptoms of depression and anxiety, dissociation, and body image concerns. Concerned with the above, this study explored the influence of unemployment, parental neglect and problematic internet use on celebrity worship among BBNaija fans.

The compensation model and Social Comparison theories provided the framework for this study while a cross-sectional survey design was adopted. Purposive sampling technique was used to select 389 participants (127 males, 262 females) across Nigeria participated in the study. Data was gathered using a structured questionnaire comprising of Parental Negligence (α =89), Problematic Internet Use (α= 82) Celebrity Worship Syndrome (α =96) scales from the selected respondents. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson productmoment correlation, Multiple analysis of variance and Multiple regression at p< 0.05 level which was distributed across Twitter and Instagram platforms. Data were analysed using oneway analysis of variance (ANOVA), independent samples t-test and multiple regression analysis. Participants‟ age was 34.46+10.67, 70.0% were males with Educational qualification (Secondary 12.6%, Tertiary 75.1% Masters 7.5% and others 4.9%)

Findings revealed that problematic internet usage had significant influence on celebrity worship [t (387) = 4.60; P<.01]. Respondents with high level of problematic internet usage reported higher on celebrity worship (Mean = 52.23; SD = 18.65) compared to those with low level of problematic internet usage (Mean = 43.45; SD = 18.98). Parental neglect had significant influence on celebrity worship [t (387) = 3.08; P<.01]. Further, respondents with high level of parental neglect reported higher on celebrity worship (Mean = 51.23; SD = 17.79) compared to those with low level of parental neglect (Mean = 45.23; SD = 20.05). It is shown that problematic internet usage and parental neglect were significant joint predictors of

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celebrity worship [R = .36; R2 = .13; F (2, 386) = 29.33; P<.01]. Collectively, problematic internet usage and parental neglect accounted for about 13% variance in celebrity worship.

Further, problematic internet usage (β = .30; t = 6.37; P<.01) and parental neglect (β = .19; t = 3.94; P<.01) were significant independent predictors of celebrity worship. Employment status had no significant influence on celebrity worship [F (2, 386) = 1.25; P>.05]. It is shown that there exists no significant gender difference in celebrity worship [t (387) = .06; P>.05].

High Parental neglect, problematic internet use and high level of unemployment predicted celebrity worship among BBNaija fans. Big Brothers Nigeria should design intervention that will enable

Parents and the government to improve on their Parental neglect, reduce problematic internet use and high level of unemployment among BBNaija contestants..

Keywords: Parental neglect, problematic internet, high level of unemployment, Celebrity worship, Big BrotherNaija (BBNaija) fans and Reality TV shows.

Introduction and Background to the Study.

Celebrities are media-constructed images of people who are famous for being famous, in other words, the status of a celebrity is mostly ascribed to individuals based on the projections and exposure they receive from the mainstream, internet and social media (Uzuegbunam, 2017, pp. 130-141). In the case of this research, a celebrity is an individual that was a housemate on the reality TV show, or an individual that participated in the show. Big Brother Naija is a reality TV show in which a group of selected individuals, 21 years and above are isolated in a house called “The Big Brother House” for about three months, performing several tasks. The viewers of the show have a favourite celebrity among the housemates whom they vote to retain each week, the viewers often referred to as fans contribute largely to the success of the show. More recently, research has considered fan attachments to their favourite celebrities; these typically one-sided relationships are taken very seriously and seen as central to the identities and emotional lives of fans.

Admiring celebrities is a normal part of growing up and learning among youths but could become problematic when it assumes an extreme proportion (Hackley, C., and Hackley, R.A., 2016, 269-274). Celebrity worship has become a rampant behaviour as people have taken more interest in the lives of these celebrities and one can say that television has contributed to this trend. Each celebrity in the Big Brother house has a fan base which refers to the people who love and adore him or her and vote to retain him or her in the house up until the final

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day. Celebrity worship as an intense form of psychological attachment that involves making one‟s relationship with their favourite celebrity the primary focus of their life, evolves from strong identification with and intense devotional feelings for that person and is characterized by loyalty and willingness to invest time and finances in that person (Brown, J., 2015, 259283). This syndrome can develop as a result of watching these individuals carry out activities from day to day and are involved in their lives for those three months or however long they stay. During the birthdays of these ex-housemates, they would receive extreme amounts of gifts and expensive items from their fans just to show appreciation. Even on social media, fans of one particular housemate might attack fans of the other when he or she makes statements that the fans might consider offensive, they are always defensive of their favourite celebrity and can see no wrong in the actions of their favourite celebrity. conceptualization of celebrity worship as an abnormal type of para-social relationship that is driven by absorption and addictive elements. Various works have been done on celebrity worship, some of which include; a research work that established the relationship between interpersonal celebrity worship and self-esteem and also a negative relationship between self- esteem and borderline pathological celebrity worship, this study also established a correlation between the extents to which participants favored people who shared the same celebrity preference. Another research also found that celebrity worship was associated with poor body image (Brooks, 2018). USA participants were reported to positively associating celebrity worship with acceptance of cosmetic surgery, However, celebrity worship was not associated with acceptance of cosmetic surgery in the South Korean Population in the same study suggesting that there might be cultural differences (Jung, Hwang. 2016, pp.17), but not much has been done on celebrity worship with regards to parental negligence, problematic internet use and unemployment.

The theories used in this study are the compensation model, social comparison theory, the absorption-addiction model and the escape theory. The compensation model views that when a celebrity worshipper has a surplus in something, the worshipper will choose to worship something else. Thus, when the worshipper has been satisfied with something, when he/she no longer looks up to the celebrity or when he/she begins to exhibit traits or features of their favourite celebrity the worshipper will like to seek new experience unrelated to the satisfactory things or the individual would begin to worship another celebrity or develop feelings.

The compensation model can extend to incorporate an adolescent's compensation for parental absence and related inadequacy of resource provision because parental absence is a precursor of the adolescent's deficits. Deficits in parental and financial contributions to the life of an adolescent are therefore likely to push the adolescent to seek compensation. This has been evident in seeking friends to compensate for deficits from parental provision (Cheung, Yue. 2012, pp. 35-46).

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The absorption-addiction model is another theory used in this study which was proposed by McCutcheon who suggests that para-social relationships form due to deficiencies in people‟s lives. They look to these relationships to escape from reality, perhaps due to traumatic events or to fill the gap left by a real-life attachment ending. Absorption refers to behaviour designed to make the person feel closer to the celebrity, for example, paying so much to vote for celebrities as in the case of Big Brother Naija fans or paying for their merchandise to strengthen the supposed relationship. The person starts to believe that they „need‟ the celebrity and behaviours become more extreme, and more delusional (McCutcheon, L., Rense, L., and Houran, J. 2002).

Escape theory refers to the tendency for people to engage in behaviours such as constantly watching your favourite celebrity and wanting to know their whereabouts, achievement or generally things about them to avoid an unpleasant psychological reaction. When people realize that a part of their identity fails to meet desired standards, they narrow the focus of their attention to the present and immediate environment to avoid meaningful thought regarding unflattering aspects of themselves. Celebrity worshippers may seek to escape from negative psychological feelings by avoiding high-level, meaningful thoughts and focusing majorly on their favourite celebrity. (Baumeister. 1990)

Unemployment, according to (Pettinger. 2019), was defined as a situation where someone of working age is not able to get a job but would like to be in full-time employment. A study revealed a positive relationship between problematic Internet use and celebrity worship, whereas the amount of time spent online was not associated with celebrity worship. This finding indicates that those with higher levels of celebrity worship experience more symptoms related to problematic Internet use; however, the amount of time spent online is unrelated to the extent of admiration of celebrities (Zsila, McCutcheon, and Demetrovics, 2018).

Recent research reported that people who are obsessed with celebrities are more likely to engage in addictive use of social media and the internet generally. In some studies, women had a greater tendency of becoming absorbed in the personal lives of their favourite celebrity than men in this study. Most studies found no gender differences in celebrity worship, while some studies reported women scoring higher on the Entertainment-Social dimension of celebrity worship than men among Filipinos and in a Malay-speaking sample. Several studies suggest that Celebrity worship is strongest in early adolescence. In a study, it was found that members of a fan club (i.e. those presumably more likely to be „celebrity worshippers‟) reported significantly lower self-esteem and significantly higher fear of negative evaluation than those who were not members of a fan club. Another study found that Celebrity worship was associated with lower self-concept clarity and lower self-esteem. Three studies found no significant relationship between Celebrity worship and self-esteem. There is also evidence of a relationship between materialism and Celebrity worship. (Brooks. 2018)

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In a recent Nigerian study, (Nnubia, et al. 2020). it was found that there was a high prevalence of languishing mental health as well as a high level of celebrity worship. Gender was not found to play any part in all the dimensions of celebrity worship attitude of the respondents, but gender difference was found in favour of the males on social wellbeing. Celebrity worship attitude was found to be detrimental to mental health only at the borderline pathological level. On the moderate and low dimensions, it was positively associated with emotional and psychological wellbeing suggesting that celebrity worship could be beneficial to some aspects of mental health.

Research design. The research design used in this study is the correlational survey design to examine the relationship between variables. This study was conducted in Nigeria where a large population was reached by distributing online questionnaires using survey monkey and sharing them using Instagram and Twitter which are prominent social media apps for the Nigerian population so as not to be restricted to a specific geographical location. The TV show is broadcast on national TV therefore it has a wide range of fans from all across the country and even all across the world but the focus of this study would be fans from Nigeria.

The sampling technique utilized in this research study was a non-probability sampling technique known as snowball/purposive sampling. The online questionnaire was shared to Big Brother Naija fan groups on both Instagram and Twitter and was then also shared by fans in that group to fans in other groups. Research setting

This study was conducted in Nigeria where a large population was reached by distributing online questionnaires using an online software called survey monkey and sharing them using Instagram and twitter which are prominent social media apps for the Nigerian population so as not to be restricted to a specific geographical location. The TV show is broadcast on national TV therefore it has a wide range of fans from all across the country and even all across the world but the focus of this study would be fans from Nigeria.

Sampling Procedure

The sampling technique utilized in this research study was a non-probability sampling technique known as snowball/purposive sampling. The online questionnaire was shared to Big Brother Naija fan groups on both Instagram and twitter and were then also shared by fans in that group to fans in other groups. Participants used showcase specific characteristics of being „fans‟ of different Big Brother Naija reality stars. Participants chosen then recruit other members of the fan groups in which they belong.

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Participants The participants used in this study were fans of Big Brother Naija, a reality TV show in which contestants live in an isolated house and compete for a large amount of money given at the end of the show by trying to avoid getting evicted from the house. A total of 389 participants were used in this stud 67.4% (262) female and 32.6% (127) male.

Instruments In this study, the instrument used for data collection was a set of relevant existing instruments compressed into a questionnaire format. This consists of 3 major sections asides from the demographics as data collected for unemployment was embedded in the questionnaires. Parental neglect was measured using The Neglect Scale by Murray A. Straus, Kinard E. Milling and Williams Linda Meyer in 1997. To measure problematic internet use in participants, the Problematic Internet Use Questionnaire (PIQ) was utilized. It was developed by Kevin J.Kelly and Elon M. Gruber in 2010. The 6-item short form of the scale was used in this study (PIUQ-SF-6). This short-form has a Cronbach alpha of .82. Celebrity worship was measured using the 17 items Celebrity Worship Scale (CWS) which was developed by Lynn E. McCutcheon, Rense Lange and James Houran in 2002 for measuring celebrity worship syndrome. The local reliability value of this scale ranges from .71 to .96.

Data collection Data for this study were collected within a month using called Survey Monkey the survey, was distributed across Twitter and Instagram social media platforms for fans of Big Brother Naija to participate

Statistical Analysis Responses gathered were analyzed using regression analysis which shows the relationship between the dependent variable and the independent variable and how the independent variable predicts or impacts the dependent variable.

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RESULTS

Results of gathered and analyzed data from three hundred and eighty-nine (389) respondents are been presented below. 4.1 Demographic Distribution

Table 4.1: Demographic Distribution of Respondents

SN Variable Response Frequency Percentage 1 Gender Male 127 32.6 Female 262 67.4 2 Age 18-23 years 247 63.5 24-29 years 96 24.7 30-35 years 31 8 36-40 years 9 2.3 41 years and above 6 1.5 3 Religion Christianity 338 86.9 Islam 44 11.3 Others (traditional) 7 1.8 4 Educational qualification Secondary 49 12.6 Tertiary 292 75.1 Masters 29 7.5 Others 19 4.9 5 Employment status Employed 92 23.7 Self-employed 117 30.1 Unemployed 180 46.3

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6 Occupation Student 233 59.9 Trader 77 19.8 Private employee 19 4.9 Artisan 55 14.1 Civil servant 5 1.3 7 Duration None 195 50.1 1-5 years 158 40.6 6-10 years 29 7.5 11-15 years 6 1.5 16-20 years 1 0.3 8 Favourite BBN celebrity 159 40.9 Dorathy 30 7.7 Erica 55 14.1 Nengi 63 16.2 Vee 33 8.5 Neo 6 1.5 Mercy 12 3.1 Ozo 12 3.1 Prince 12 3.1 Kiddawaya 6 1.5 Brighto 1 0.3 Total 389 100

Hypothesis One Respondents with a high level of problematic internet usage will significantly report higher on celebrity worship compared to those with a low level of problematic internet usage. This was tested using a t-test for independent samples. It is shown that problematic internet usage had a significant influence on celebrity worship [t (387) = 4.60; P<.01]. Further, respondents with high level of problematic internet usage reported higher on celebrity worship (Mean = 52.23; SD = 18.65) compared to those with low level of problematic internet usage (Mean =

43.45; SD = 18.98). This confirms the stated hypothesis.

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Hypothesis Two Respondents with a high level of parental neglect will significantly report higher on celebrity worship compared to those with a low level of parental neglect. This was tested using a t-test for independent samples. It is shown that parental neglect had significant influence on celebrity worship [t (387) = 3.08; P<.01]. Further, respondents with high level of parental neglect reported higher on celebrity worship (Mean = 51.23; SD = 17.79) compared to those with low level of parental neglect (Mean = 45.23; SD = 20.05). This confirms the stated hypothesis.

Hypothesis Three Problematic internet usage and parental neglect will jointly and independently predict celebrity worship. This was tested using multiple regression analysis. It is shown that problematic internet usage and parental neglect were significant joint predictors of celebrity worship [R = .36; R2 = .13; F (2, 386) = 29.33; P<.01]. Collectively, problematic internet usage and parental neglect accounted for about 13% variance in celebrity worship. Further, problematic internet usage (β = .30; t = 6.37; P<.01) and parental neglect (β = .19; t = 3.94; P<.01) were significant independent predictors of celebrity worship. This confirms the stated hypothesis, hence was retained in this study.

Hypothesis Four Employment status will have a significant influence on celebrity worship. This was tested using a One-Way Analysis of Variance. It is shown that employment status had no significant influence on celebrity worship [F (2, 386) = 1.25; P>.05]. This negates the stated hypothesis.

Hypothesis Five Female participants will significantly report higher on celebrity worship than male counterparts. This was tested using a t-test for independent samples. It is shown that there exists no significant gender difference in celebrity worship [t (387) = .06; P>.05]. This negates the stated hypothesis, hence was rejected in this study.

Discussion The primary focus of this study was to investigate the influence of unemployment, parental neglect and problematic internet use on celebrity worship among fans of the reality TV show, BBN. This study was also interested in investigating the relationship between celebrity worship and gender. Five hypotheses were tested, three were accepted and two were rejected. This study set out to contribute to the advancement of knowledge in the field of social psychology and adds to the already existing knowledge on celebrity worship in Nigeria. It

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also increases the understanding and investigates the reason for violent and aggressive behaviour observed amongst celebrity worshippers, especially borderline-pathological worshippers and helps in addressing these contemporary issues.

The first hypothesis which stated that respondents with high level of problematic internet usage will significantly report higher on celebrity worship compared to those with a low level of problematic internet usage is inconsonant with the work of (Zsila. A., et al, 2018) who found that high levels of celebrity worship were associated with problematic internet use. This hypothesis also agreed with new research from EötvösLoránd University and PázmányPéter Catholic University that states that people who are obsessed with celebrities are more likely to engage in addictive use of social media and the internet generally.

The second hypothesis which stated that respondents with high level of parental neglect will significantly report higher on celebrity worship compared to those with a low level of parental neglect agrees with works done by Cheng and Yue who reported that celebrity idolization was predicted by parental absence (when the father or mother were absent, adolescents were more likely to idolize their favourite celebrity and also tended to have older idols, which suggests that a celebrity may serve as a kind of complementary „replacement‟ for a lack of authority figure.

The third hypothesis stated that problematic internet usage and parental neglect will jointly and independently predict celebrity worship. As seen in other research that problematic internet use and parental neglect have an impact on celebrity worship. It was established in this study that they collectively influence celebrity worship, especially among Big Brother Naija fans.

The fourth hypothesis states that employment status will have a significant influence on celebrity worship, In a study carried out it was discovered that About 55% were currently employed, 28% were unemployed but seeking work, and 14% were unemployed. The relationship between unemployment and watching reality TV shows can be explained by experiencing this feeling of connection with characters or contestants in these TV shows more than ever before because we had busy schedules. One can say this study agrees with the study that there was no relationship between unemployment and celebrity worship even though 46.3% were unemployed.

The fifth hypothesis which states that female participants will significantly report higher on celebrity worship than male counterparts is in agreement with many past studies. Cheung and Yue found that idolization of celebrities was more prevalent among females than males. Huh7 reported that females scored higher than males on the Celebrity Attitude Scale overall, the entertainment-social subscale (Swami et al. 2011a; Vega et al. 2013), or the intensepersonal subscale (Liu 2013; Maltby et al. 2004b), while males reported higher levels of borderline-pathological CW (Chia and Poo 2009; Maltby et al. 2004a; Reeves et al. 2012). McCutcheon et al. (2016c) found higher levels of both entertainment-social and intense

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personal CW for males, while North et al. (2005) found higher levels of intense-personal and borderline-pathological CW among males. Perhaps related, McCutcheon et al. (2006a) found that males were slightly more likely to endorse celebrity stalking. Conversely, Maltby et al. (2004b) reported that females in a student sample scored higher on borderline pathological CW, while Reeves et al. (2012) found that males scored higher on total CAS scores and the entertainment social subscale.

Conclusion Based on the findings of the study, it was concluded that problematic usage of the internet influences celebrity worship. Respondents with high level of problematic internet usage significantly report higher on celebrity worship compared to those with a low level of problematic internet usage. Parental neglect had a significant influence on celebrity worship. Respondents with a high level of parental neglect reported higher celebrity worship compared to those with a low level of parental neglect. Employment status had no significant influence on celebrity worship. Parents are therefore encouraged to regulate the amount of internet consumption of their children to avoid the creation of more celebrity worshippers in society. Also, the importance of social workers in Nigeria is brought to light because children who are neglected by their parents usually grow up with psychological and development issues which may eventually lead to societal issues.

Limitations The major limitation of this study is that Twitter, which was the major source of respondents for this study was temporarily banned by the federal government during this study. This made it harder to continue the distribution of the online survey on this social media platform and narrowed our research setting to social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook. Due to this reason, assessing a large number of respondents for the survey was challenging.

Another limitation of this study is that the geographical location of the respondents is not known. This may limit the ability to generalize since data was collected online. Hence, cultural differences among respondents could not be assessed.

The fact that the survey was conducted online made it difficult to follow through as the respondents filled the survey, to ensure that they read the questions and responded accurately.

Recommendation Based on the findings and conclusions of the study, the following are recommendations suggested; The government is advised to set up an independent agency to ensure that parents take full responsibility for their children and if not, these children should be put in properly funded foster homes where they will be taken care of to avoid being neglected. Parents as well

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should put a limit on children‟s internet access and internet use to prevent problematic internet use. Parents should also engage in conversations with their children to ensure they understand what they are going through.

Also, celebrities fresh out of the Big Brother house should be taken through a workshop on how to handle being in the public eye so they do not go out and start engaging in toxicity because it is a whole new world they come into when they come out of the world and they have millions of people looking up to them. Therefore, they need to learn to act right.

Future research should include geographical location or ethnicity as an item in the demographic information section of their questionnaire to make the research generalizable among respondents from different parts of the country.

Conflicts of Interest There were no conflicts of interest among the researchers.

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