The Role of Celebrity Worship and Parasocial Interaction with them in Prediction of Body Image Concern

Body image as an attitude towards the body, consisting of thoughts, emotions and body-related behaviors, is one of the phenomena that can be affected by celebrity worship and parasocial interaction with celebrities. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to predict body image concerns based on celebrity worship and parasocial interaction with celebrities in Guilan University students. The statistical population of this study was all students of Guilan University in the academic year 2018-2019, of which 300 students were selected by convenience sampling. For collecting data, body image concern inventory (Littleton et al, 2005), celebrity worship attitude (McCutcheon & et al, 2002), and celebrity parasocial interaction scale (Bocarnea & Brown, 2007) were utilized. Finally, data analysis was performed using Pearson correlation coefficient and stepwise multiple regression. The results of the study indicated that celebrity worship and parasocial interaction with celebrities have significant correlations with body image concern (p< 0/001). Also, the results of present study showed that celebrity worship and parasocial interaction with celebrities can predict body image concern. The results of the research indicate that increasing the level of celebrity worship and parasocial interaction with celebrities’ prompt to the significant increase in body image concerns.