Unemployment, Parental Negligence and Problematic Internet Use on Celebrity Worship Syndrome Among Big Brother Naija Fans. (1) O
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International Journal of Research in Economics and Social Sciences(IJRESS) Available online at: http://euroasiapub.org Vol. 11 Issue 08, August- 2021 ISSN: 2249-7382 | Impact Factor: 8.018| (An open access scholarly, peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary, monthly, and fully refereed journal.) UNEMPLOYMENT, PARENTAL NEGLIGENCE AND PROBLEMATIC INTERNET USE ON CELEBRITY WORSHIP SYNDROME AMONG BIG BROTHER 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 International Journal of Research in Economics & Social Sciences 34 Email:- [email protected], http://www.euroasiapub.org (An open access scholarly, peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary, monthly, and fully refereed journal.) International Journal of Research in Economics and Social Sciences(IJRESS) Available online at: http://euroasiapub.org Vol. 11 Issue 08, August- 2021 ISSN: 2249-7382 | Impact Factor: 8.018| (An open access scholarly, peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary, monthly, and fully refereed journal.) 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, Big Brother Naija 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 International Journal of Research in Economics & Social Sciences 35 Email:- [email protected], http://www.euroasiapub.org (An open access scholarly, peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary, monthly, and fully refereed journal.) International Journal of Research in Economics and Social Sciences(IJRESS) Available online at: http://euroasiapub.org Vol. 11 Issue 08, August- 2021 ISSN: 2249-7382 | Impact Factor: 8.018| (An open access scholarly, peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary, monthly, and fully refereed journal.) 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