The Use of ‘F’-Word among High School Students

The study investigated the usage of the F-Word among high school students. It also studied the various factors influencing them to use the word. The sample consisted of 200 students-100 boys and 100 girls, of 10th grade from different schools in North and South Bangalore. The participants provided their demographic details and completed the F-Word Survey Questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were performed to analyze the data. The results suggest that, on an average, 73.5% of 10th grade students have reported to use the F-Word. The percentage of boys is more than the girls, with respect to the usage of the F-Word. The reasons for using the F-word, in the ascending order of most no. of responses, were- anger/frustration, difficulty in using a decent word instead of the F-Word, peer influence, movie/TV/music influence, the feeling of „grown up‟, fun factor, trend factor, to abuse, and parental/family influence. Girls use the F-Word more due to anger or frustration, difficulty in using a decent word to express their thoughts, the feeling of „grown up‟ and parental or family influence, than boys. Also, boys are more influenced by peers, movie/TV/music, fun and trend factors and use the F-Word to abuse, than girls. It was also found that students use the F-Word more in Texting (SMS) than on social networking sites, email and chat rooms. The results also suggest that, on an average, 27.89% of students have reported that their parents are aware of their children using the F-Word. And, 55.88% of students have reported that the F-word usage is inappropriate of their age. On an average, 26.5% of students do not use the F-Word. The percentage of girls who do not use the F- Word is higher than the boys.