Female unemployment in an emerging economy : A study of online social support as a coping strategy

The increased use of social media has resulted in active participation of women on social media platforms, specifically Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. However, very little research has been carried out, specifically, on how women cope with the challenges of unemployment using social media networks. Thus, many women resort to different means as a coping strategy during their unemployment. In the face of rapid diffusion of social platforms, it is unclear how women personality traits influence their use of the social media. Similarly, it is also unclear how women’s experiences with these social networks, as a medium of online social support, serve as a coping strategy in the period of unemployment from the perspective of an emerging market. A quantitative research was employed. Hence, a questionnaire was used as its research instrument. Women Facebook users were contacted to fill the questionnaire between May and July 2019. There were 1,473 respondents. Their responses were utilized with SPSS for regression analysis, mediation analysis, and moderation analysis. This finding shows that educational achievement is a crucial factor in the ability of unemployed females to leverage online social support for employment. This study touched on the limitations of the previous works and areas for future study.