When fandom becomes a problem: Development of the Problematic Celebrity Fanship Scale using a representative adult sample

TL;DR

This study creates a scale to measure when admiration for celebrities becomes a mental health issue, finding it affects about 1-2% of young adults.

Contribution

The study introduces the Problematic Celebrity Fanship Scale, a new tool to measure excessive celebrity admiration as a behavioral addiction.

Findings

The 8-item Problematic Celebrity Fanship Scale showed strong psychometric properties and a cutoff score of 26.

Problematic celebrity fanship prevalence was 1.4% overall and 2.3% among young adults.

Problematic celebrity fanship was linked to psychological distress and lower self-concept clarity.

Abstract

There has been considerable research interest in the personality characteristics and mental health of individuals showing excessive levels of celebrity admiration. However, the conceptualization and measurement of potentially problematic levels of engagement with celebrities remain unclear. This study introduces and operationalizes the concept of problematic celebrity fanship within the theoretical framework of behavioral addictions. The main aim is to develop a measurement instrument to assess problematic celebrity fanship.

Participants were 755 individuals with a favorite celebrity (51.4% men, Mage = 36.4 years, SD = 13.4), derived from a representative sample of Hungarian adults (N = 2,028).

The 8-item unidimensional Problematic Celebrity Fanship Scale (PCFS) demonstrated sound psychometric properties across factor structure, measurement invariance, reliability, and validity. Based on latent profile analysis, a cutoff score of 26 was suggested. Prevalence rate for problematic celebrity fanship was 1.4% (adults aged 18–64 years); however, young adults (aged 18–34 years) showed a higher, 2.3% prevalence. Problematic celebrity fanship severity was moderately associated with psychological distress, lower self-concept clarity, problematic Internet use, and celebrity worship.

The PCFS can assist in the recognition and assessment of problematic celebrity fanship in research and practice by identifying individuals experiencing mental health difficulties in relation to their excessive engagement with a celebrity.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40359-026-04064-w.

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