Public figures as idols of secondary school students in Serbia

Abstract

The idols categorization offers an insight into adolescents’ values. It is also interesting to track changes in the certain categories preferences and to identify new categories. Hence, our research aim is to classify adolescents’ idols and to determine their preferences, to compare that categorization with previous research (Lin & Lin, 2007; Popadic, 2003; Stepanovic et al., 2009, 2017) and to relate idols preferences with socio-demographic variables. The sample includes 1383 secondary school students (1st and 3rd grade) from 10 Serbian towns. Adolescents (60% of the sample) named 431 public persons. The main idols’ categories are show business stars, sportsmen, artists and scientists, entrepreneurs, politicians and fictional characters. The categorization is same as in the recent research (Stepanovic et al., 2017) and similar to the others (Lin & Lin, 2007; Stepanovic et al., 2009). Additional subcategories are identified within show business class: fashion models and reality stars, which appeared in the previous study (Stepanovic et al., 2017) but their popularity now rises (reported by percentage of respondents who admire these subcategories), and the new subcategory of social media influencers. The admiration of show business models is higher while sportsmen are less preferred than earlier. However, Novak Đokovic is the most popular role model appreciated by 3.6% of students. Politicians, artists and scientist are rarely admired, as in the previous studies. The preferences of entrepreneurs and fictional characters are stable and low. There are no significant differences among 1st and 3rd graders regarding idols’ preferences, while gender and school type matters. Grammar school students admire scientists, artists and entrepreneurs more than vocational school students who prefer sportsmen and fictional characters (χ² = 19.134, df = 5, Cramer’s V = 0.12, p = .002). Gender is strongly associated with idol’s gender preference (χ² = 340.715, df = 1, Cramer’s V = 0.64, p = .000). Boys almost always name male idols (96%), while 34% of girls have male idols. Gender differences exist also regarding idols’ categories preferences (χ² = 110.146, df = 5, Cramer’s V = 0.37, p = .000). Girls admire show business stars, artist and scientist more than boys. Boys, more than girls prefer sportsmen, politicians, rulers and entrepreneurs. The results suggest strong and growing influence of the contents presented on the Internet and social networks on adolescents’ idols preferences.