Factors Associated With Connectedness to Social Media Influencers Among Italian and Dutch Young Adults

Parasocial bonds with Social Media Influencers (SMIs) can significantly influence followers’ behaviors, attitudes, and well-being, especially during adolescence and young adulthood. This study examined how diverse dimensions of connectedness with SMIs (i.e., escape, imitation, modeling, and aspiration) relate to perceived social connectedness in offline, combined offline-online social connectedness and online contexts, as well as to social self-efficacy and problematic social media use, age and sex. A total of 554 respondents (346 from Italy and 308 from the Netherlands) aged 18 to 35 years (Mage = 23.85; SDage = 3.63; 67.6% female) completed an online survey. Structural equation modeling was employed to test the hypothesized associations, followed by multigroup analysis to assess cross-cultural differences. Findings revealed that offline social connectedness was negatively associated with the escape dimension, while offline-online connectedness showed negative associations with escape and imitation. In contrast, online connectedness was positively associated with these same dimensions. Thus, the form in which social connectedness is experienced seems to relate to more immediate and superficial forms of parasocial engagement. Social self-efficacy was positively associated only with aspiration, highlighting a selective, identity-driven engagement with SMIs. Problematic social media use was positively linked to all connectedness dimensions, suggesting its broad influence. Younger respondents were more inclined to imitation, modeling and aspiration compared to older respondents, while male respondents reported higher scores than females across all dimensions. Finally, multigroup analysis revealed significant differences between Italian and Dutch respondents, emphasizing the role of cultural context in shaping parasocial dynamics with SMs.