For most people celebrity worship is part of growing up, say experts

They may be lonely, insecure or lacking in social skills. The may also have a poor relationship with their parents.

"They may be reacting to bad relationships," said Dr John Maltby of Leicester University.

The findings are based on a study of 191 children between the ages of 11 and 16, published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.

Two types

According to the researchers, there are two types of celebrity worship.

The first is called "entertainment-social celebrity worship", where children discuss the lives and tribulations of their favourite celebrities.

"This is a normal part of growing up," says Dr Maltby.

Intense celebrity worship may be indicative of some relationship not working properly Dr John Maltby, University of Leicester

The second is "intense-personal celebrity worship", where children see their favourite celebrity as their soul-mate and are obsessed by them.

"They believe they have a very personal relationship with the celebrity," Dr Maltby told BBC News Online. "It may be affecting their relationship with other people."

The survey suggested that as many as one in 10 children may fit into this category.

The researchers found many of these children had problems in other parts of their life.

"Those people had lower levels of security and closeness," said Dr Maltby.

"Some of those people who were very heavily into a celebrity were not close to some of the people in their lives and were not as secure.

"Their intense celebrity worship may be indicative of some relationship not working properly."

Dr Maltby said further research is needed to find out why some children are obsessed with celebrities.

"We don't know if intense celebrity worship is caused by children reacting to bad relationships or whether their interest in celebrities causes them to withdraw from others.

"We are carrying out other studies to try to find out."