Fandom effects on the psychological well-being of its participants during Covid-19

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National Academy of pedagogical sciences of Ukraine

Institute of Psychology

Royal Australian college of general practitioners

Fandom effects on the psychological well-being of its participants during Covid-19

Lukomska S.O.,

С.S. Kostiuk,

Doan T.

Annotation

The COVID-19 pandemic has considerably impacted many people's lives. The article presents the results of studying the fandom effects on the psychological well-being of its participants during COVID-19. In total, 141 Daniel Lavoie's fans (aged 16-70 years) from 30 countries among them Canada, France, Russia, China, Ukraine, the United States, Australia filled an online survey. There is a lack of cross-cultural studies regarding the influence of Francophone music on the well-being of people of different ages.

Respondents answered questions about their background, stress context during pandemic COVID-19 (work, study, family stress, grief, loss, traumas), personal characteristics (based on TIPI questionnaire), and the degree to which they were influenced by Daniel Lavoie's music and his fandoms before and during pandemic.

Questionnaires also were conducted to explore how the Daniel Lavoie's fans use social media to maintain their transcultural fandom. This method was chosen to emphasize the participants 'life histories and let them share their words and ideas about what their life- courses as a fan means to them and how they experience this.

The results showed that despite the fact that Daniel Lavoie is a French-speaking singer and his fans 'favorite songs are in French, his fandom is transcultural, where only 32,62% know French at a high intermediate and advanced level. As a result, 99.8% of fans, regardless of age, level of education and employment status, said that acquaintance with Daniel Lavoie's work had a positive effect on their worldview, opened new opportunities for self-realization and personal growth Analyses showed that benefits Daniel Lavoie's music bring and main new experiences derived from Daniel's creativity and participation in his fans communities.

Daniel Lavoie's music contributes to the personal growth of his fans. There are statistically significant age differences in this aspect of the impact: youngest fan can lose track of time when listening to Daniel Lavoie's music and the eldest - can more transcend everyday experience.

Key words: well-being, music preference, Daniel Lavoie, online fandom, transcultural fandom, COVID-19 pandemic.

Аннотація

Лукомська С.О., Костюк С.С. Доан Т. Вплив фан-клубів на психологічне благополуччя їх учасників в період пандемії Covid-19

Пандемія COVID-19 суттєво вплинула на життя багатьох людей, проаналізоване у даній статті дослідження спрямовано на визначення впливу творчості Даніеля Лавуа та участі у присвячених йому фанклубах на психологічне благополуччя і поведінку учасників під час пандемії COVID-19. В онлайн дослідженні взяли участь 141 фан Даніеля Лавуа (віком 16-70 років) із 30 країн світу.

Ключовими аспектами опитування є психологічні особливості прихильників Даніеля Лавуа, стресове навантаження на них під час пандемії, ідентифікація себе з фанатськими спільнотами, влив музики Даніеля Лавуа на психологічне благополуччя до та під час пандемії, вплив особистості Даніеля Лавуа та участі у спільнотах фанатів на психологічне благополуччя та адаптацію до стресових умов життя. Крім цього, вивчалися уподобання щодо творчості співака, особливості сприймання фанатами його пісень у різних повсякденних ситуаціях, вплив на особистісне зростання і плани щодо самореалізації, зокрема й у творчій діяльності.

В дослідженні використано опитувальник TIPI (Ten-item personality inventory), модифікована Шкала стресових подій Холмса-Раге (The Holmes and Rage Stress Inventory), окремі твердження з опитуваль- ника резилентності Коннора-Девідсона (Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale). Для обробки результатів дослідження застосовано частотний аналіз, К-критерій Краскела-Уоліса, U-критерій Манна-Вітні. Встановлено, що незважаючи на те, що Даніель Лавуа є франкомовним співаком і улюблені пісні його шанувальників звучать французькою, його фанклуб є транскультурним, де лише 32,62% знають французьку мову на високому та середньому рівнях, 99,8% шанувальників, незалежно від віку, рівня освіти та статусу роботи, стверджують, що знайомство з творчістю Даніеля Лавуа позитивно вплинуло на їхній світогляд, відкрило нові можливості для самореалізації та особистісного зростання. Крім того, позитивно впливає на психологічне благополуччя (особливо в умовах суттєвого звуження соціальних контактів, зумовленого пандемією COVID-19) участь в онлайн-фанклубах, зокрема, це позначається на підвищенні стресостійкості та розвитку творчих здібностей фанів.

Ключові слова: психологічне благополуччя, слухання музики, Даніель Лавуа, онлайн-фанклуб, транскультурний фандом, пандемія COVID-19.

Statement of the problem

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. Since then, the pandemic has significantly altered the lives of many people across the globe. The COVID-19 has diverse epidemiological and biological characteristics, making it more contagious than earlier pandemics such as SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV. The severe contagious nature of COVID-19 developed a unique threatening situation in the entire world. Globally approximately 3.9 billion people are quarantined in their homes. Industrial and organizational psychologists have suggested that during this time, people experienced more stressors such as health-related worries, job insecurity, work-family conflict, and discrimination. Pandemics are linked to deteriorations in wellbeing and mental health and reduced social contact is strongly associated with poor psychological outcome. It is essential to examine the factors associated with well-being during the conditions of this pandemic, because the virus and amelioration measures may continue to affect large parts of the world's population for months or years to come.

Analysis of recent research and publications. Research in wellbeing has been growing in recent decades (E. Diener, E.M. Suh, R.E. Lucas, G.L. Smith [1]; C.L. Keyes, D. Shmotkin, C.D. Ryff [5]). Knowing the historical background to the study of wellbeing is necessary to the definition of well-being. Two approaches emerged: the hedonic tradition, which accentuated constructs such as happiness, positive affect, low negative affect, and satisfaction with life (S. Lyubomirsky, H.S. Lepper) [6]; and the eudaimonic tradition, which highlighted positive psychological functioning and human development (C.D. Ryff, B.H. Singer) [11]. However, despite the differences in approach, most researchers now believe that wellbeing is a multi-dimensional construct. C.D. Ryff's early work identified aspects that constitute wellbeing: autonomy; environmental mastery; positive relationships with others; purpose in life; realization of potential and self-acceptance. More recent research has placed different emphases on what well-being is: ability to fulfil goals; happiness and life satisfaction (Z.X. Ong, L. Dowthwaite, [7]; P. Dursun [3]).

The positive physiological and psychological effects of music on health and well-being are well researched in the field of music psychology. Music can positively impact people's mental health by supporting mood regulation, social relationships, and increasing positive emotions and self-esteem. However, in the field of music information retrieval (MIR), there is limited research exploring the connections between music and the mental health of the listener. In particular, the complex context of being a music fan involves online communities and social media, as well as the fan's perceived relationship with the artists which will inevitably influence the impact of music on listeners' mental health (C. Sandvoss, J. Gray, C.L. Harrington) [12]. Yet, there is a dearth of research exploring the holistic context of the listener, including external factors related to music such as the social relationship of listeners to artists and other fans.

Fan studies as a field is barely three decades old, but in that time, it has produced an enormous amount of literature and interest from the scholarly community (J. Packer, J. Ballantyne) [8]. Nowadays fandom studies focuses on the critical exploration, within a wide range of disciplines and fan cultures, of issues surrounding production and consumption of popular media (including film, music, television, sports and gaming). Of particular interest is how this relates to transculturality - a setting in which a cultural text can be analyzed across cultural borders (K. Yoon) [13].

Popular music gives individuals an opportunity to define their identities, but also creates space for finding communities based on their shared interests (S. Driessen) [2]. Studies combining different kinds of music and fandoms often focus on music as a resource and fandom as a resource but never considered their mutual impact, in particular in crisis life situations or in situations of global uncertainty. This study is the first of its kind not only in terms of psychological well-being during a pandemic, but also because it focuses on the influence of one artist, well known around the world, who despite the pandemic, continues his creative work.

Fandom can play an important role in one's self-concept. Fandom and identity are often intertwining concepts, as fans construct identities based on the object of their fandom, the shared identity with the group they are a part of, and through their interaction with others in this group (R. Pearson) [9]. In constructing identity around the object of fandom, fans will choose to associate themselves with certain texts or characters that they feel are reflective of their own personalities, that is, a personalization of a text. S. Reysen has shown how particular roles and behaviors within fan communities can establish particular identities, known both to the fan and to others in the group. This shared identity that fandom facilitates is constructed both around the object of fandom, as well as around the space in which they discuss it and those with whom they share the space [10].

We analyzed the existing theoretical studies of the fandom effects on the psychological well-being of its participants and made the following conclusions: feeling comforted, understood, and not alone; self-growth through understanding and accepting oneself; intentional coping through various music; connection of listeners and songs through support from textual and visual elements, connections with artists beyond music; feeling of creativity or contribution; connections with other fans through discussion of music.

Formulation of the purpose of the article. The aim of this study is to determinate the impact of Daniel Lavoie's work and participation in fandoms dedicated to him on the psychological well-being and behavior of participants during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study will also help to ensure that popular music fandom is taken seriously by providing insight into how music plays a crucial role in the fans' well-being during pandemic.

Presentation of the basic material

In AugustSeptember 2021, Daniel Lavoie - Officiel together with La joie de Lavoie - Daniel Lavoie fanpage organized and conducted an empirical study «Impact of Daniel Lavoie's music and fan communities on well-being in the COVID-19 pandemic». The questionnaire, originally developed in English, has been translated into French, Chinese and Russian. All translations are checked and approved by native speakers of these languages. The survey used such measures as: Ten- item personality inventory, The Holmes and Rage Stress Inventory (modified), some statements from the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale. The following statistical criteria were used to process the results of the study: frequency analysis, Kruskal-Wallis oneway analysis of variance, Mann-Whitney U-test, Wilcoxon signed-rank test, Pearson's chi-squared test. 141 respondents from 30 countries took part in the survey. Due to the small number of male respondents (7,1% men, 92,2% women and 0,7% of the others), gender differences were not taken into account when analyzing the results of the study. The average age of survey participants is 36,5 years. The overall majority of Daniel Lavoie's fans aged 25 to 45 years, but the study involved both respondents under 18 years and over 65 years, which indicates the relevance of his work for people of all ages. The overall majority of fans have higher education and are employed.

To determine the impact of stressors on fans personality during a pandemic, we used a modified Holmes and Rage Stress Inventory. It was found that the total level of stress is 22,16, which corresponds to a low stress level, the results of surveys in four languages not differ statistically significantly (p = 0,204).

The main stressful events for the respondents during the pandemic were: problems in the family, at work, health problems and isolation (significant narrowing of the communication circle).

In recent years, the five-factor model of personality traits (the so-called «Big Five») has become a «gold standard» in the psychological study of individual differences. Questionnaires based on this model (including factors such as neuroticism or emotional stability, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness and conscientiousness) are widely used for the personality studies in both research and applied purposes. The Ten Item Personality Inventory (TIPI), developed in the USA by S. D. Gosling, P.J. Rentfrow, W. Swann (2003) [4] was designed to measure the dimensions of the Five Factor Model (FFM) of personality. The TIPI has been translated into a number of languages; cross cultural validation revealed similar results on all three measures to those obtained in the study of the English-language TIPI.

According to the TIPI questionnaire, respondents are characterized by a high level of conscientiousness (16,07), moderate - openness to experience (10,28), agreeableness (9,89) and emotional stability (7,94) and low - extraversion (6,69). Data from questionnaires in different languages not differ statistically significantly (p> 0,05).

Figure. Fandoms members personal traits (according TIPI)

supporter creativity daniel lavois psychological pandemic

Conscientiousness is the personality trait of being careful, or diligent. Conscientiousness implies a desire to do a task well, and to take obligations to others seriously. Conscientious people tend to be efficient and organized as opposed to easy-going and disorderly. They exhibit a tendency to show self-discipline, act dutifully, and aim for achievement; they display planned rather than spontaneous behavior; and they are generally dependable. Introversion is the state of being predominantly interested in one's own mental self. Introverts are typically perceived as more reserved or reflective. Introverts often take pleasure in solitary activities such as reading, writing, or meditating. An introvert is likely to enjoy time spent alone and find less reward in time spent with large groups of people. Introverts are easily overwhelmed by too much stimulation from social gatherings and engagement, introversion having even been defined by some in terms of a preference for a quiet, more minimally stimulating external environment. Openness to experience is one of the domains which are used to describe human personality in the Five Factor Model. Openness involves six facets, or dimensions: active imagination (fantasy), aesthetic sensitivity, attentiveness to inner feelings, preference for variety (adventurousness), intellectual curiosity, and challenging authority (psychological liberalism). Agreeableness is a personality trait manifesting itself in individual behavioral characteristics that are perceived as kind, sympathetic, cooperative, warm, and considerate. People who score high on this dimension are empathetic and altruistic, while a low agreeableness score relates to selfish behavior and a lack of empathy. This personality dimension includes attributes such as trust, altruism, kindness, affection, and other prosocial behaviors.

Particularly, we note that during 2020-2021, about 19,1% fans first became acquainted with Daniel Lavoie's work, before - although they heard the well- known «Belle» from the musical «Notre Dame de Paris», solo work of its performers was not interested. Across the total sample fans listen to Daniel Lavoie's solo songs and songs of musicals performed by him for about one hour a day. According to the results of correlation analysis, the older a person is, the less he listens to songs from musicals and more - Daniel Lavoie's solo songs (r = 0,508, p = 0,001), but with age the frequency of listening to music decreases significantly (p = 0,002).

To determine the impact of Daniel Lavoie's work on the fans well-being during a pandemic, we calculated two main criteria - the total impact before the pandemic and the total impact during the pandemic. According to the results, these criteria are significantly related (r = 0,709, p = 0,001) and their results in both individual samples and total sample differed significantly (Z = -3,233, p = 0,001). That is, the impact of Daniel Lavoie's work on fans psychological well-being is higher during a pandemic, not before it. We analyzed the overall impact of Daniel Lavoie's work on different age fans. According to statistical analysis, there are no significant differences between them. In addition, we included in the analysis the factors of influence on well-being fans communities dedicated to Daniel Lavoie.

The present study also sought to examine which components of well-being were most affected. In this case, the distribution by age groups was not carried out, the total sample was analyzed. In sum, in almost all aspects there is a growing impact of Daniel Lavoie's work on fans well-being of fans, especially it concerns such statements: «distracts me from stress», «makes me feel happier when stressed, angry or anxious», «helps me feel a range of emotions», «distracts me from anxiety», «evokes a sense of awe», «evokes pleasant memories». After the presence of the impact Daniel Lavoie's music on psychological well-being was statically demonstrated, we analyzed the key aspects of this impact: what exactly affects fans well-being during a pandemic in the context of Daniel's work. As a result, 99.8% of fans, regardless of age, level of education and employment status, said that acquaintance with Daniel Lavoie's work had a positive effect on their worldview, opened new opportunities for selfrealization and personal growth.

It was found that the more Daniel Lavoie's fans listen to his music, the more positively it affects them (r = 0,587, p = 0,001). In addition, the more time fans spend getting acquainted with Daniel Lavoie's woks (not only listening to songs, watching videos from musicals, but also reading his books and listening to radio programs), the more important it is for them to participate in fan communities (r = 0,591, p = 0,001), which are the main source of news and other information about Daniel. In general, the impact of Daniel Lavoie's work on well-being is significantly positively related to the participation in the communities dedicated to him (r = 0,725, p = 0,001). Participation in fan communities has had the greatest impact on such aspects of well-being as «helps me see things in a more positive light», «makes me feel less alone», «makes me feel happier when stressed, angry or anxious», «distracts me from stress», «comforts me when I feel stressed».

Daniel Lavoie's music contributes to the personal growth ofhis fans. Personal growth: facing challenges that are manageable and lead to developing new skills or becoming a better person («The song Le Blues du Businessman, makes me rethink about what kind of people I want to be», «His story (I mean biography) makes me understand that I can do everything (I need and want) because he managed to do it (what he needed and wanted) and still manages»). Almost all respondents claim that «his music changed views on many things». In addition, we highlighted the benefits Daniel Lavoie's music (work) bring and main new experiences derived from Daniel's creativity and participation in his fans communities.

Conclusions

Beyond the benefits associated with being a fan, such as greater well-being, fans are motivated to participate in the fan interest for a variety of reasons, such as entertainment, to escape the stresses of their day-to-day lives, or to fulfil a need for belonging and through this gain an array of positive benefits. For some fans this participation provides a purpose in life and inspiration. In some this is generated through the source material which may inspire the production of art, music, or other works, from both the fandom itself as both a model for behavior and a source for new ideas.

Participation in fandoms provided real comfort to the participants and helped them develop emotional resilience for self-coping: music helped to escape or forget their difficult reality momentarily which people could not control (e.g., the pandemic or abusive household). It helped them connect with reality, and provided space for articulating and normalizing negative experiences, feelings of loss, and emotions that are a part of one's lived experience but are hidden, stigmatized, and/or feared in the society). Most participants experienced connections with artists beyond music through the artists' live conversations with fans, personal stories, struggles, behind the scenes stories of the song/album, art, and imagery; these participants valued the authenticity of the artists in various types of work, explaining how easy it was to relate to them on a personal level. People spoke about feeling an abstract connection with “others out there” who might be listening and relating to the same music; this reduced their sense of loneliness.

In summary, we emphasize that this study is the first of its kind not only in terms of psychological wellbeing during a pandemic, but also because it focuses on the influence of one artist, well known around the world, who despite the pandemic, continues his creative work.

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