I think it can go either way, depending on the reasons why you're doing it.

Self respect.

Control.

For some rreason we choose to believe that women don't enjoy sex, I know lots of women who love sex. I will accept though that sex with someone you are both physically attracted and emotionally connected to is better than just shagging someone you fancy.

It can be.
We live in a society where there are people still in the workforce who remember the world before the sexual revolution. We won't undo 2000 years (at minimum, the Romans and the Greeks both diid their share of slut-shaming) of cultural conditioning in a mere half century.
This being so, it is reasonable to expect that there are people (and in this case history means the burden does fall mostly on women) who hook up as a form of self-punishment.
At the root of "higher meaning" is the Abrahamic tradition.

Have you noticed how it's always women who are said to be suffering from a lack of self-respect if they engage in casual hook-ups, whereas nobody says the same of men? Just another subtle form of slut-shaming.