When I Fall in Love: The Uses and Gratifications of Romantic Parasocial Attachments in Adolescent Girls

• In Event: Finding Myself, for Better or Worse: Adolescents and Media

Abstract

Teen fans attachments to media idols are nothing new (Doherty, 1988). Yet, often fans’ attachments to media figures are dismissed as frivolous elements of teen life and belittled or ignored psychology and communications literatures (Jenkins, 1992; Caughey, 1984; Willis, 1972; Duffett, 2013). This project provides insight into the experience of parasocial love in adolescence, specifically, the uses and gratifications of these relationships. In a series of in-depth focus groups, college women discussed their adolescent experiences with romantic attachment to media figures. Fiske’s (1992) concepts of enunciative and semiotic productivity and Bourdieu’s (1984) discussion of cultural capital are applied to the emergent focus group themes and reflect participants’ focus on social ties, identity development, and romantic socialization. This data supports past research suggesting that parasocial romantic attachment to celebrities may play a powerful role in adolescent sexual and romantic socialization (Karniol, 2001; Tukachinsky, 2010).

Author

• Sarah Erickson, U of Michigan