Public figures as role models of Serbian adolescents: Preferences and reasons

Abstract

There is no absolute agreement on public figures' effects on youth development. However, authors warn that youth's growing interest in media, where idols frequently appear, must have some impact on their identity formation and value system. Our goal is to discover which role model types are preferred and to identify potential new ones. We also investigated adolescents' reasons and connected them with specific idol preferences. The sample included 1404 adolescents from primary and secondary schools in 5 Serbian towns. Idols are classified according to a previously used classification: show business, sport, science and art, politics, fiction. The reasons were codified as well: intelligence, strong personality, humanity, good communication skills, desirable profession, fame, physical appearance, social power, wealth, professional success. The relationship between idol types and various reasons was tested by GLM MANOVA and Logistic regression for each role model type with reasons as predictors. Entrepreneurs are new public figures that adolescents admire, while youtubers and bloggers are new subcategories within show business. The effect of the role model type is statistically significant (Wilks' Lambda=0.556, p<0.001) and group differences are found in intelligence (F=10.585, p<0.001), physical appearance (F=8.368, p<0.001), professional success (F=16.79, p<0.001) and social power (F=23.831, p<0.001). Intelligence is dominantly attributed to scientists and artists. Adolescents admire show business celebrities and occasionally fictional characters for their physical appearance. Professional success is associated with sports and social power with politics. Logistic regression (χ²(10)=85.259, p<0.001) shows that actors and singers are perceived as attractive but not professionally successful (negative beta coefficient). Sportsmen are admired because of professional results and humanity while beauty and intelligence are not their traits (χ²(10)=111.781, p<0.001). Intelligence is the only reason predicting the choice of scientists and artists (χ²(10)=27.026, p<0.01), while politicians and rulers are seen as powerful but not successful (χ²(10)=41.42, p<0.001). New role model categories obviously accompany new media trends. Relations between idol preferences and associated reasons reveal that adolescents attribute and value different characteristics in various role model types.