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 10 th 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.

The Oxford English Dictionary states that the ultimate etymology is uncertain, but that the word is "probably cognate" with a number of native Germanic words with meanings involving striking, rubbing, and having sex. The highly profane term remains a taboo word to many people in many countries, while others feel the word remains inappropriate in social etiquette. The word also carries a sacrilegious connotation to some. It is considered highly offensive to utter the word in the presence of children. Some instances of the word can be taken at face value. This term is but one of a number of words an individual could use to express an important meaning. The usage of the F-word is not uncommon in the Indian movies too.
This study has relevance to the present day Indian cultural and educational scenario, where many of the youngsters follow the western trends, with easy access to internet, mobile phone services and foreign movies and television shows. The present study aims to find out the number of students who use the F-word and the various factors influencing the students to use the F-word among 10 th standard boys and girls across Bangalore.
According to the website "Reppler", 47% of Facebook users have profanity on their wall. 80% of the users who have profanity on their Facebook Wall have at least one post/comment with profanity from a friend.56% of the posts/comments with profanity on a user"s Facebook Wall come from friends. Users are twice as likely to use profanity in a post on their Facebook Wall, versus a comment. Whereas friends are twice as likely to use profanity in a comment on a user"s Facebook Wall, versus a post. The most common profane word is derivations of the "f-word".
The above stated studies indicate that there has been les research concerning the use of the F -Word among high school students, especially in the Indian context.

METHOD: Objectives:
 To study the various factors influencing the students to use the F-word  To determine the gender differences in the usage of the F-word.

Sample:
The participants for this study were 200 students-100 boys and 100 girls,aged between 14 and 16 years, with a mean age of 14.78 years (SD=0.56) of 10th grade from different schools (with the request from different school authorities, the names of the schools have not been mentioned) in the North and South zones of Bangalore, India. Simple Random Sampling Procedure was used to obtain the data.

Design:
The research designs employed in this study are sample survey, and ex-post facto design which is exploratory in nature.

Materials:
The study was conducted using the F-Word Questionnaire designed by the researcher to obtain quantitative and qualitative responses. The questionnaire consists of twelve main questions with twenty sub-questions, including four qualitative questions that require the subjects to write about the parents" reaction, other specific reasons for using the f-word, reasons for not using the Fword, and other swear/cuss words they use. The quantitative questions focus on the frequency of the usage of the F-word, reasons for using it, people with whom the students use the F-word, and whether they use it on social networking sites, while Texting, etc.

Procedure:
The principals/heads of various in North and South zones of Bangalore were approached to obtain the authorization to conduct the study. The purpose of the study was briefed and rapport was established. Socio-demographic details were collected in the data sheet prepared, and was followed by the instructions separately to answer the survey questionnaire. The subjects and the principals of the respective colleges were thanked for their co-operative participation.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION:
The data collected were scored and a master sheet was prepared. The scores were analyzed using descriptive statistics comprising of percentages to determine the usage of the F-Word among school students.  An observation of Table-1 reveals the no. of students who have reported to use the F-Word. Out of 200 students who were administered the F-Word Questionnaire, 147(73.5%) students have reported to use the F-Word. 79(79%) out of 100 boys and 68(68%) out of 100 girls use the F-Word. This implies that the percentage of boys is more than the percentage of girls who use the F-Word. students, 4(5.06%) of 79 boys and 5(7.35%) of 68 girls have reported to have been influenced by parents or other family members.
The above data indicate that, 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. The no. of boys who are influenced by peers, use the F-word with their friends more than the girls. Similarly, boys who use the word for fun and trend factors also use it with their classmates and stranger more than girls.

Fig-3. The percentage of students who use the F-Word in different media
An observation of The data above indicate that, mobile phones and social networking sites have an impact on students" usage of the F-Word. This could be because; people with various backgrounds and nationalities come together on social networking sites and chat rooms, thus making it a trend to use the F-Word as a common word to express the thoughts. This can be attributed to the fact that, the second most often reported reason for using it is the difficulty in finding a decent word instead of it, and also the trend factor and the feeling of "grown up" contribute to the frequent usage of the F-Word on social networking sites, e-mail, and while chatting and Texting(SMS).   Table-4 and Table-5 show the no. of students who use the F-Word when parents/teachers are around, and the no. of students whose parents are aware of their children"s usage of the F-Word, respectively. 26(17.68%) of 147 students including 11(13.92%) of 79 boys and 15(22.05%) of 68 girls use or have used when their parents/teachers are/were around. On an average, 41(27.89%) of 147 students" parents are aware that their children use the F-Word. 17(21.51%) of 79 boys" and 24(35.29%) of 68 girls" parents know their children use the F-Word. The Qualitative reports of the students indicate that, when they used the F-Word when their parents were around, 42.30% of the parents did not react and ignored it, 34.61% of parents criticized them, and 23.07% of parents asked their children not to use the word thereafter.