Childhood Celebrity, Parental Attachment, and Adult Adjustment: The Young Performers Study

[Ezra John]

The associations of celebrity, parental attachment, and adult adjustment were examined among 74 famous, former young performers in television and film. Although the focus of the research was on television and film, many of the young performers studied had corresponding if not subsequent careers in the music industry. As adults, former young performers whose parents served as their professional managers viewed their mothers as less caring and more overcontrolling than did performers whose parents were not their managers. Possible implications for parenting child actors and analogous populations of talented children in high-stress arenas are discussed.


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Matt Meleen, LCSW
mattmeleencounseling@gmail.com