Further Validation of an Indirect Measure of Celebrity Stalking

Author(s): Lynn E. McCutcheon, Mara Aruguete, Nancy G. McCarley, William J. Jenkins

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Abstract: The Obsessive Relational Intrusion and Celebrity Stalking scale (ORI & CS) was developed to identify persons likely to become stalkers of celebrities. The purpose of the present study is to provide additional evidence about the reliability and validity of the ORI & CS. We administered the ORI & CS and measures of celebrity worship, fantasy proneness, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and celebrity stalking behavior in several possible orders to 145 college students. Neither the fantasy proneness scale nor the obsessive-compulsive measure correlated significantly with the ORI & CS, but both subscales of the latter did correlate significantly with the two more problematic subscales of the celebrity worship measure, essentially replicating an earlier study. Furthermore, obnoxious celebrity stalking behavior was the best predictor of threat subscale scores from the ORI & CS. Implications for the further study of celebrity stalking are explored.