Idol worship as compensation for parental absence

Abstract

Idol worship refers to psychological identification with and emotional attachment to an idol figure, who is most likely to be a celebrity for young people nowadays. Fragmentary findings in previous research on adolescent idol worship suggest that it may represent compensation for the worshipper's deficits, such as those in parental resources. To illuminate this compensation perspective, the study surveyed 401 Chinese secondary school students in Hong Kong. Its results show that parental absence and socio-economic status tended to affect the adolescents' idol worship desires. The idol worship included the adolescent's liking of pop idols, the age of the idols liked, and the wish to have romantic relationships with idols. They offer good support to the compensation perspective, implying that idol worship is symptomatic of the adolescent's deficits.

Keywords:

• idolatry
• compensation theory
• fandom
• celebrity worship
• parental absence

Introduction

Idolising refers to considering a person or person-like figure as an object for worship. For young people nowadays, worship of an idol-like figure typically involves convictions that the figure is idealistic, lovable, and almighty (Yue & Cheung, 2000). Worship also implies admiration, esteeming, respecting, yearning, envying, revering, adoring, and being addicted to (He, 2006; Niu & Wang, 2009). An idol, not confined to a deity, can be a hero, a celebrity, a luminary, or a role-model (Maltby, Day, McCutcheon, Gillett, et al., 2004), and in most cases, a pop star who is either an artiste or athlete (He, 2006). Worship of star idols, especially pop stars and movie stars, is of great research concern lately because of its prevalence, peer norm, and somewhat deleterious impacts on youth development (Maltby, Day, McCutcheon, Gillett, et al., 2004; McCutcheon, Ashe, Houran, & Maltby, 2003). As large amounts of money and effort go to idol worship and its related industry (End, Dietz-Uhler, Harrick, & Jacquemotte, 2002), clarifying the nature of idol worship is worthwhile. Moreover, the extent of idolising and the characteristics of the idol vary among adolescents, and such variation offers a clue to studying the nature of idol worship (He, 2006). One identifiable characteristic for the study is the pop star's age, which is useful to verify the nature of idolising as compensation for parental absence (Engle & Kasser, 2005). The verification is necessary in view of inconclusive works (Jenson, 1992), which have not directly addressed the impact of parental absence on idolising.

Compensation perspective on idol worship

Nevertheless, idol worship is becoming increasingly popular among young people nowadays (Giles & Maltby, 2004). Some empirical findings seem to suggest idol worship serves to compensate for the worshipper's missing qualities and resources (for example, Engle & Kasser, 2005). More specifically, idol worship may function as compensation for deficits in psychosocial development, cognitive development, inadequacy in attachment, companionship, social networking, and romantic relationships, and other weaknesses. For example, idol worship has appeared to represent one's fantasised attachment to remote figures, imaginary companionship, entertainment, reflection of value or expectancy, deficiency in psychosocial development, deficiency in cognitive development, and absorption and addiction (Engle & Kasser, 2005; McCutcheon et al., 2003).

The compensation model also views that when the worshipper has a surplus in something, the worshipper will choose to worship something else. Thus, when the worshipper has been satisfied with something, the worshipper will like to seek new experience unrelated to the satisfactory things. The compensation model has been useful to identify fragile or low self-esteem, weak social alliance, and monotonous life experience as determinants of idol worship (Jenson, 1992).

The present compensation model also suggests that idol worship is symptomatic of deficits in psychosocial and cognitive development and its resources. Deficits in psychosocial development may involve those about fear of separation, handicaps in sexuality, and the lack of freedom in personal development (Giles, 2000). Similarly, deficits in cognitive development occur in one's egocentrism or failure to take others' and societal perspectives, which results in one's overemphasis on uniqueness and imagination (Seiffge-Krenke, 1997). Apart from the individual's own deficiency, inadequacy in social relationships and other life experiences would be a concern for seeking compensation (Jenson, 1992). For instance, idol worship has appeared to stem from inadequate attachment to parents, absence of close and secure relationships, inadequacy in social complexity and cognitive flexibility, cognitive deficits in creativity, critical thinking, need for cognition, spatial ability, and crystallised intelligence (Giles & Maltby, 2004; McCutcheon et al., 2003). These findings all show that deficiency in various cognitive and psychosocial aspects is predictive of idol worship. Besides the personal developmental deficit, the deficit in resources related to social class or family background appear to encourage idol worship (Argyle, 1994).

The compensation model can extend to incorporate the adolescent's compensation for parental absence and related inadequacy of resource provision, because parental absence is an antecedent of the adolescent's personal deficits outlined above (Johnson, McGue, & Iacono, 2007). The possibility arises from theory and research about the influence of parental absence on youth development, including self-esteem and academic achievement (Conger & Dogan, 2007). In theory, the influence can be contingent on the adolescent's reliance on parents financially and psychologically (Bellair & Roscigno, 2000). Meanwhile, parental financial and psychological inputs to the adolescent tend to vary according to parental presence (Sampson, Morenoff, & Earts, 1999). Deficits in such inputs are therefore likely to urge the adolescent to seek compensation. This has been evident in seeking friends to compensate for deficits from parental provision (Gaertner, Fite, & Colder, 2010). Based on the compensation model, the study formulates the following hypotheses to specify ways that parental backgrounds shape different forms of the adolescent's idol worship, with reference to the compensation model.

Hypotheses

From the compensation perspective on the emergence of idol worship, the present study focuses on the role of parental presence as a predictor of the early adolescent's (secondary school student from Grade 7 to Grade 9) idol worship. Essentially, parental presence and socio-economic resources would be early indicators or constituents of the adolescent's abundance or deficit of resources in the examination of the compensation model.

Liking an older pop idol

The compensation model would predict that an adolescent without a father or mother is likely to find an older idol to be a substitute for the lost parent. Identifying with an older idol would provide a secure base for the adolescent's attachment (Larose & Boivin, 1998), which is particularly necessary in the absence of the parent (Lapsley & Edgerton, 2002). This gives the following hypothesis:

Hypothesis 1: An adolescent whose father or mother is absent likes an older pop idol than is an adolescent whose father or mother is present.

The hypothesis focuses on the age of the pop idol rather than the non-pop figure because the pop idol is typically alive and has his or her contemporary age identifiable and meaningful for the test of the compensation model. Conversely, many non-pop figures are deceased and their age would not be relevant to the adolescent in treating the idol as a substitute of absent parents. Besides, the age of such a non-pop figure as the teacher or relative is not publicly known and therefore unavailable for analysis.

Idolising an idol figure

According to the compensation model, an adolescent idolises a figure (i.e. regards a figure as his or her favourite idol) when the adolescent's parents are not present to be the adolescent's idol. As such, idols would be substitutes for adolescents' lost parents. This is likely because the adolescent requires someone for secure attachment and the absence of secure attachment to parents is a basis for idol worship (Giles & Maltby, 2004). This hypothesis follows:

Hypothesis 2: An adolescent whose father or mother is absent idolises a figure more strongly than does an adolescent whose father or mother is present.

The compensation model further expects idolising to happen in the absence of a parent who qualifies to be the adolescent's idol (Jenson, 1992). The qualification may depend on the parent's social status, as constituted by education and occupation or social class. Hence, an adolescent would have a low level of idolising when his or her parents are higher in social status, education or social class (Argyle, 1994). This gives the following hypothesis:

Hypothesis 3: An adolescent idolises a figure more strongly when his or her father or mother is lower in social status, education and social class.

Relevance of Hong Kong

Hong Kong is a paradise for adolescents' idol worship, and almost every pop star has his or her own fans' club (Cheung & Yue, 2003, 2004). The entertainment industry is ostensibly responsible for the bombardment of images of pop figures, which represent the major objects of idolising (Yue & Cheung, 2000). Importantly, the entertainment industry joins forces with those in the West, Japan, Korea, and other places to amplify its in-roads into Hong Kong adolescents' life. Nevertheless, Hong Kong may be different from other places in the socio-cultural context. This difference warrants the examination of idol worship in Hong Kong, rather than the simple adoption of knowledge developed from other places. Conversely, the difference justifies the need for testing knowledge originating from research in the West and thereby verifying findings for international reference. On the one hand, parents are more authoritarian (Lai, Zhang, & Wan, 2000); and on the other hand, adolescents are more obedient to their parents in Hong Kong (Morris, Kan, & Morris, 2000). Such parent–adolescent relatedness may generalise to the impact of family background on the adolescent's idol worship. Accordingly, adolescents in Hong Kong are likely to practice idol worship with reference to their family backgrounds. The test of the impact of family background on the adolescent's idol worship is therefore suitable in Hong Kong, where adolescents are sensitive to parental influence. Nevertheless, whether parental influence is in the form of compensation is uncertain. Because of this uncertainty and the potential of family influence in Hong Kong, the study would be pertinent to clarify the influence.

Methods

In early 2007, a survey of 401 students of two secondary schools (n = 205 and n = 196) in Hong Kong provided data for the study. These students consisted of 202 Grade 7 students, 106 Grade 8 students, and 93 Grade 9 students. They responded to the survey during class time arranged by the schools, which also helped obtain parental consent to the students' participation in the study. Some research personnel helped the collection of the completed survey questionnaires from the students.

The sample profile showed that the students had an average age of 13.6 years (see Table 1). They consisted of roughly balanced proportions of boys (55.4%) and girls (44.6%). Only 7.2% of them had fathers absent in their families and only 6.2% of them had mothers absent in their families. The students' fathers were mostly manual workers or working-class member (45.9%, see Table 1), and the others were clerks, routine non-manual workers, or middle-class members (29.1%), professionals, managers, or upper-middle-class members (15.3%), employers, self-employed, or ownership class members (2.5%), and not employed (1.0%), based on the class schema (Kingston, 2000). In contrast, the students' mothers were mostly not employed (63.2%), and the others were manual workers or working-class members (10.0%), clerical workers, routine non-manual workers, or middle-class members (16.4%), and professionals, managers, or upper-middle-class members (10.9%). None of the mothers was an employer, self-employed, or ownership class member.

Table 1 Means and standard deviations (N = 401 students).

Variable	Range	Mean	Standard deviation
Father's occupation: employer or self-employed	0–1	0.025	0.155
Father's occupation: professional, manager	0–1	0.153	0.361
Father's occupation: routine non-manual	0–1	0.291	0.454
Father's occupation: manual	0–1	0.459	0.499
Father not employed	0–1	0.010	0.099
Mother's occupation: professional, manager	0–1	0.109	0.312
Mother's occupation: routine non-manual	0–1	0.164	0.371
Mother's occupation: manual	0–1	0.100	0.299
Mother not employed	0–1	0.632	0.483
Father's education	1–6	3.294	1.209
Mother's education	1–6	3.165	1.168
Father absent	0–1	0.072	0.259
Mother absent	0–1	0.062	0.242
Grade	7–9	7.728	0.814
Grade retention	0–1	0.077	0.266
Age	12–18	13.641	1.304
Female	0–1	0.446	0.497
Idol: entertainment	0–1	0.800	0.400
Idol: sport	0–1	0.050	0.219
Idol: entertainment or sport	0–1	0.826	0.380
Idol: female	0–1	0.406	0.491
Idol: age (entertainment or sport only)	15–65	30.865	8.175
Idolising	1–10	6.528	2.491
Modelling	1–10	6.302	2.518
Wish to attain idols' status	1–5	2.579	0.860
Wish for romantic relationships with idols	1–5	2.090	0.841
Note: Scores for parental education were: 1 = below primary education, 2 = primary education, 3 = secondary education, 4 = education, 5 = non-university postsecondary education, and 6 = university or above education.

Measurement

Each student could nominate six favourite idol figures at most and rated the figures in terms of the degree of idolising (i.e. taking as the student's idol) on a scale from one to 10 (Cheung & Yue, 2003, 2004). The question read: ‘How much do you idolise the figure or take the figure as your idol?’ Three of the idol figures were those liked currently and the other three were those liked two years before.

Analytic procedures

As each student could generate six cases to represent six idol figures at most, all of the students gave 2405 cases associated with idols nominated by the students. The students thereby became a second-level factor, in which the cases of idol figures were nested. Statistical techniques for handling such two-level data involved the procedure of MIXED in the SPSS. MIXED was suitable for analysing a continuous outcome variable by explicitly estimating the random variance component due to the student (Peugh & Enders, 2005). Both procedures thereby adjusted for the clustering effect of the student in the examination of effects of other factors. Such adjustment was obviously necessary because of the non-independence of cases of the same students (Hedeker, Gibbons, & Flay, 1994).

Outcome variables for the regression analysis by MIXED were the student's favourite idol's age and idolising of the idol. Predictor variables, which were fixed factors, were father's and mother's presence, education, and occupations or social classes, the student's age and gender, and time (current vs. two years before). Because of the high correlations between the characteristics of the father and mother, it was necessary to estimate the effects of the father and mother separately. Similarly, because of the high correlation between age and grade, the analysis could only estimate the effect of age. Age was preferable to grade for the analysis because age displayed greater variation than did grade. To facilitate the interpretation of estimation results, the analysis used standard scores of the continuous variables to show standardised regression coefficients or effects. The use of standard scores also minimised the problem of multicollinearity in the examination of interaction effects (Aiken & West, 1991). Notably, estimation of interaction effects was necessary to test some of the hypotheses. Besides, the student's age, gender, and timing (current vs. two years before) served as control factors, given the possibility that they affected data collection about family background (Vitaro, Brendgen, & Wanner, 2005) and idol worship (Giles & Maltby, 2004).

Results

The majority of the liked idol figures were artistes or performers of the entertainment industry (80.0%). Including artistes and athletes, pop idols represented 82.6% of the liked idol figures (see Table 1). Because a pop idol was both an artiste and athlete, athletes accounted for 5.0% of the favourite idol figures. In contrast, 17.4% were non-pop figures who were politicians, entrepreneurs, poets, religious figures, and other people. Among all the idol figures, 40.6% were female and 59.4% were male. The above characteristics were consistent with existing findings (He, 2006; Yue & Cheung, 2000). In addition, the average age of the pop idols was 30.9 years. This was reasonable because some older idols such as Jackie Chen were still the adolescents' favourites. Idolising of the idol figures had an average of 6.528, on a scale from one to 10, whereas the wish for romantic relationships with idols showed an average of 2.090 on a scale from one to five. Hence, idolising was not predominantly strong, even for the liked idol figures, and romantic attachment was relatively weak in general, thus exhibiting an exception rather than a rule.

Predicting the age of the liked pop idol

Parental absence and the student's gender were significant predictors of the age of the liked pop idol. Specifically, the absence of the father showed a standardised effect of 0.103 on the age of the liked pop idol, whereas the absence of the mother manifested a standardised effect of 0.101 on the idol's age. These findings consistently support Hypothesis 1, as parental absence tended to lead the adolescent to like an older pop idol, controlling of the adolescent's age (see Table 2). Besides, the male adolescent liked an older pop idol more than did the adolescent girl. These findings held, given the control for other background characteristics.

Table 2 Standardised regression coefficients for predicting the age of the liked pop idol.

Predictor	Father	Mother
Father as an employer or self-employed	− 0.018	–
Father/mother as a professional or manager	0.053	0.005
Father/mother as a routine non-manual worker	0.020	− 0.002
Mother as a manual worker	–	0.009
Father's/mother's education	0.000	− 0.036
Mother's/father's absence	0.103*	0.101*
Age	0.051	0.017
Female versus male	− 0.266***	− 0.266***
Current versus past	0.029	0.071
BIC (Bayesian Information Criterion)	2351	2352
R ^2	0.305	0.304
Variance component of student	0.223	0.226
Note: Omitted categories were the father as a manual worker or not employed and the mother as not employed. The column ‘Father’ included the father's characteristics as predictors, whereas the column ‘Mother’ included the mother's characteristics as predictors. *p < 0.05; ***p < 0.001.

Predicting idolising

Idolising of an idol figure in general, or a pop idol in particular, was significantly predictable by parental absence and parental social status. When an adolescent's father or mother was absent, idolising of an idol figure or pop idol in particular was significantly stronger (see Table 3). The effects were comparable (0.154–0.171) whether they sprang from the father's absence or the mother's absence on the idolising of any figure or on the idolising of pop figures. This finding supports Hypothesis 2.

Table 3 Standardised regression coefficients for predicting idolising.

	All		Artiste or athlete
Predictor	Father	Mother	Father	Mother
Father as an employer or self-employed	− 0.019	–	− 0.033	–
Father/mother as a professional or manager	− 0.139**	− 0.101*	− 0.127**	− 0.091*
Father/mother as a routine non-manual worker	− 0.101*	− 0.059	− 0.097*	− 0.062
Mother as a manual worker	–	0.020	–	0.034
Father's/mother's education	− 0.087#	− 0.089#	− 0.072	− 0.083
Mother's/father's absence	0.171***	0.154**	0.166***	0.161**
Age	0.047	0.065	0.036	0.052
Female versus male	0.031	0.020	0.071	0.062
Current versus past	0.059	0.038	0.085	0.066
BIC (Bayesian Information Criterion)	3272	3281	2576	2580
R ^2	0.474	0.475	0.464	0.465
Variance component of student	0.379	0.397	0.311	0.319
Note: Omitted categories were the father as a manual worker or not employed and the mother as not employed. The column ‘Father’ included the father's characteristics as predictors, whereas the column ‘Mother’ included the mother's characteristics as predictors. #p < 0.10; *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001.

Moreover, idolising of an idol figure or pop idol was stronger when the adolescent's father or mother was lower in social status. Accordingly, idolising was stronger when the parent was not a professional, manager, clerk, and another routine non-manual worker, and the parent's education was low. In contrast, when the father was a manual worker or not employed and the mother was not in employment, the adolescent idolised the idol figure more strongly. These findings support Hypothesis 2.

Discussion

In general, results of this study favour the compensation model of idol worship. All three hypotheses receive support, suggesting that an adolescent tends to adore the idol in ways that would compensate for deficits found missing in the adolescent's parental resources. Parental absence and low social status would prompt the adolescent to idolise star idols to seek compensation. Such findings importantly illustrate the structural influence of parental absence on the adolescent and thereby offer empirical support for theory about the compensation mechanism (Jenson, 1992). The structural influence is crucial because it is the objective basis underlying the adolescent's identity development (Lin & Lin, 2007). Such influence thereby appears to be fundamental and inherent in the adolescent's family and early development. The influence may explain findings about the adolescent's deficits in various aspects, including psychosocial and cognitive development, attachment to parents, cognitive flexibility, social complexity, health, and peer support (Maltby, Day, McCutcheon, Martin, & Cayanus, 2004). Such support for the compensation perspective is also consistent with the absorption–addiction model of idol worship, which focuses on the deficit in the adolescent's identity as a determinant of idolising (Maltby, Day, McCutcheon, Gillett, et al., 2004).

Overall, the compensation model provides reasonable explanations for various ways of idol worship by justifying specific impacts of specific parental characteristics. These explanations are reasonable because they do not argue for a blanket impact of parental characteristics on all forms of idol worship. Rather, they are selective in showing the specific way that a particular form of idol worship compensates for a specific deficit in parental resources. The specific compensation would thereby operate in the following ways. Preference for older pop idols tends to compensate for parental absence in order to find other successful and older adults as substitutes. Idolising in general would be compensation for the absence of parents and their deficit in social status.

While the compensation model appears to provide the most pervasive explanation for the adolescent's idol worship in various ways, it is not the only model for understanding the emergence of idolising. As such, findings not directly explainable by the compensation model would reflect other explanations. The most notable finding is the gender difference in the age of the liked pop idol. Meanwhile, gender did not make a difference in the degree of idolising. The girl may like younger pop idols because of her desire for affiliation and identification with them, even not in a romantic way (Lempers & Clark-Lempers, 1993). This desire is most salient during adolescence (Galambos, Berenbaum, & McHale, 2009). Younger pop idols would be preferable for friendship-making, because their age was close to that of the adolescent girl and this closeness would be conducive to friendship-making (Pellegrini & Blatchford, 2000). In contrast, the boy is more investigative, agentic, and achievement-oriented (Sadler-Smith, 1999), and hence prefers to identify with idols who are more successful because of their older age and thereby the more work experience and accomplishment made (Simonton, 1999).

Further research

While compensation is a reasonable determinant of the adolescent's idol worship, the exact pathways connecting parental characteristics and the idol worship are not yet transparent, thus requiring further research. One logical pathway hinges on the adolescent's consciousness about the deficit and need for compensation, which then drives the adolescent to take action for the compensation. This pathway therefore would involve the adolescent's autonomous rational choice (Greene & Adams-Price, 1990), comprising the assessment of the deficit in family resources and cost, and benefit in idol worship. The pathway thereby represents a crucial way for the adolescent to explore and construct an identity (Lin & Lin, 2007). An alternative pathway is the increased exposure and vulnerability to the influence of idols among adolescents with a deficit in family background. In this way, the adolescent need not take initiative to choose idols for compensation. Instead, this adolescent is just receptive of the inroads of idols into his or her mind, in the absence of parental influence. This pathway then hinges on the promotional activities for idols, which in turn rest on the development of the entertaining industry and other educational or indoctrination agencies (Schultze et al., 1991). A third pathway is through parental action, which facilitates or impedes idol worship (Greene & Adams-Price, 1990). Parental action, such as socialisation and monitoring, depends on socio-economic and cultural resources of the parents (Seiffge-Krenke, 1997). When parents are deficient in resources, they may encourage or fail to resist their adolescent children's idol worship as a way of compensation. Additionally, adolescents' idol worship may just follow their parents' arrangement or preference. When parents have a need for compensation for their weaknesses, they may prefer idol worship, thereby leading their adolescents to follow. Research that illustrates the pathways would substantiate the compensation thesis and related findings presented by this study.

To demonstrate the pathways, further research is necessary to incorporate multiple sources of information in a diverse collection of societies across time. While the adolescent can report his or her consciousness of family deficits and compensatory intention and action in idol worship, the adolescent may not be the best informant on parental and business activities in arranging and promoting idol worship. Besides, integration of information from multiple sources is necessary to reconcile discrepant views about the provision and reception of influences. The discrepancy may arise in the case that parents have exerted some influences about which their adolescent children are not aware. Essentially, the impact of family background and its mediation through various pathways is likely to vary across places with different socio-cultural contexts.

Notably, when family influence is salient in a collectivist context, the family background may be an important concern for the adolescent's compensatory action in idol worship. Parental absence and social status are also likely to be more influential in a society with more disparity in terms of family structure and social stratification. As such, parental characteristics would be influential in Hong Kong because of its emphasis on family cohesion and its high level of economic inequality (Estes, 2005). Showing the differential impact according to societal characteristics would substantiate the compensation thesis by illuminating the condition for compensation. Accordingly, compensation is only necessary for the deficit in a dimension valued in the society. Societal concerns for family intactness and status are therefore contextual conditions for the examination of the differential role of compensation in different societies. Anyway, a cross-societal study is necessary to elucidate differences in the impact among places, pertaining to the influence of compensation for romantic attachment (Engle & Kasser, 2005).

Furthermore, research would benefit from a longitudinal and prolonged design to demonstrate the expected differential in the impact in different lengths of time. Firstly, the design needs to demonstrate that an earlier parental deficit influences the adolescent to idol worship later, especially because of the possibility that the influence cannot operate immediately. The adolescent requires some time lag to manifest the influence through various pathways. Secondly, the design can enable the examination of the expectation that the influence decreases when the time lag is excessively long. A much earlier deficit may not affect the adolescent, as the adolescent has more time for adaptation to the deficit. Hence, the design can identify the time lag that creates the strongest impact.

Implications

Findings about the reasonable influences of parental characteristics on an adolescent's idol worship indicate that idol worship is more than the adolescent's personal concern. As such, the adolescent's idol worship has a basis on parental, family, and even societal features. When societal features shape the distribution and concern for family and parental characteristics, idol worship becomes a product of societal influence. Such an observation echoes the concern for the influence of capitalism and postmodernisation at the societal level on idol worship (Giles, 2000; Niu & Wang, 2009; Morrison, 1995). Attempts to understand and tackle adolescents' idol worship thereby need to consider parental, family, and societal factors. In support of the compensatory model, idol worship appears to be symptomatic of deficits in parents and adolescents as well, because of their dependence on parents. This view is compatible with theories about idol worship as an outcome of psychosocial and cognitive deficits (McCutcheon et al., 2003).

Furthermore, the present finding traces the deficit in the family origin, which is consistent with findings about the negative impact of attachment to parents on idol worship (Giles & Maltby, 2004). It also supports the emphasis on family structure and social class as concerns for compensation (Feldman & Wentzel, 1995). Conversely, the finding does not suggest that idol worship is a simple and natural manifestation of the adolescent's personality and socialisation experience. As such, idol worship does not seem to be a luxury good of the well off. As a response to the disadvantaged, idol worship may aggravate problems because it, specifically pop idol worship, tends to engender adverse impacts on the adolescent (Cheung & Yue, 2000, 2003). The aggravation tends to happen when idol worship does not fulfil its compensatory function. Even though adolescents wish to compensate for their deficits, they may not be able to benefit from their idols. This is because idols are usually remote to adolescents physically and psychologically. As such, benefits from the idol are likely to be imaginary and illusory (Maltby, Day, McCutcheon, Gillett, et al., 2004).