Teenage Dreams: An Examination of Adolescent Romantic Parasocial Attachments

Abstract

Adolescent crushes on media figures have driven industry success throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, from the Beatles to Justin Bieber. Although several lines of research explore elements of these attachments, there is no comprehensive model of this experience and no validated scale to measure adolescent romantic attachment to media figures. Using a multi-methodological, interdisciplinary approach, this dissertation engages in an in-depth examination of adolescent romantic attachment to celebrities through 3 studies, including a) qualitative testimonies from young women who have experienced these relationships, b) the creation of a new quantitative measure and model of Adolescent Romantic Parasocial Attachment (ARPA), and c) an exploration of how this new measure relates to beliefs, ideas, and behaviors associated with sexual socialization. Results suggest a multi-dimensional phenomenon consisting of behavioral, emotional, cognitive, and fantasy components and provide evidence for the role of Adolescent Romantic Parasocial Attachments in sexual socialization. First, a series of focus groups with college women examines the experience, practices, uses, and gratifications of ARPAs. Qualitative analyses of these data support the dimensions of of emotions, cognitions, fantasies, and behaviors. Evidence is presented that participants used ARPAs as a tool in identity development across three arenas: social identity, individual identity, and romantic identity. In the second study, focus group data generated 64 scale items which were then systematically pared down to a final 10 item scale. This scale was then validated using both concurrent and predictive validity. Finally, for a separate sample of college women, higher scores on this scale (indicating more intense or involved parasocial attachments) were associated with increased likelihood of endorsing traditional gender roles in relationships, increased reliance on romantic relationships in evaluating self-esteem, and an increased likelihood of having experienced passionate love. Ultimately, this project provides a broad picture of the experience of romantic attachment to celebrities for adolescent American women and a theoretical foundation for further work exploring how romantic attachments to media figures can be both developmentally adaptive—providing an opportunity for safe identity exploration and experimentation—or maladaptive—resulting in the transmission of stereotyped and problematic beliefs about romantic relationships—for adolescents.