THE IMPACT OF DIGITAL VALIDATION ON SELF-ESTEEM AMONG YOUNG GIRLS IN KARACHI

Abstract

Social media has increasingly been a way for youth to communicate and gain social acceptance. The ability to like and comment on things gives people digital validation that's easy to see and can impact their self-worth. This particular research paper examined the effect of digital validation on the self-esteem of young females aged 18 to 25 years old and the contribution of Baseline self-esteem to self-esteem levels. A quantitative research design with a cross-sectional technique was used. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 354 young women who use social media. Established scales were used to measure self-esteem, Baseline self-esteem, and digital validation. Descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, hierarchical multiple regression & Pearson correlation were used to analyse the data. Results showed that digital validation negatively and significantly predicts self-esteem, meaning that the more someone uses likes and comments to validate themselves, the less positive their self-esteem is. Baseline self-esteem was also revealed to be a significant negative predictor of self-esteem. In addition, negative correlation analysis revealed that there was a significant correlation between self-esteem and digital validation and Baseline self-esteem.