BETWEEN SUPPORT AND DISCRIMINATION: HOW SOCIAL ENVIRONMENTS AFFECT STUDENT SELF-CONFIDENCE IN THE DIGITAL AGE

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to see how social discrimination and social support impact the level of self-confidence of college students in the digital era. Social discrimination (frequency of experience, type, intensity of emotional impact, perception of injustice, duration of exposure), social support (frequency of interaction, emotional, informational, and instrumental support, online quality, and frequency), and self- confidence (academic confidence, social self-esteem, ability to overcome challenges, self-expression rather than social discrimination) were measured through a Likert scale-based questionnaire, using a quantitative survey method with a sample of 106 students. Social discrimination had no significant effect on self-confidence, while social support had a positive and significant effect on self-confidence (β= 0.589, p < 0.05). With no autocorrelation or multicollinearity issues, the regression model explained 30.2% of the variation in self-confidence. The conclusion shows how important social support is to increase students' self-confidence in the digital era.