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Kids swear as soon as they learn to speak
A new study has revealed that children start using swear language at a much younger age than they did just a few decades ago.
Updated : Sep 25, 2010, 06:30 PM IST
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Modern-day children start using profanities and expletives as soon as they learn to speak, a new study has found.
Researchers also found that children are swearing more often than they did just a few decades ago.
Timothy Jay, a psychology professor at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, suggested that the rise in use of profanity among children is not surprising, given the general rise in the use of swearing among adults in the same time period.
"By the time kids go to school now, they are saying all the words that we try to protect them from on television. We find their swearing really takes off between [ages] 3 and 4," Live Science quoted Jay as saying.
Children aren't learning to swear at an early age from the television they watch. Instead this rise in cursing is related with the rise in cursing among adults in the past 30 years.
Nearly two-thirds of the adults surveyed, having rules about their children swearing at home, found that they broke their own rules on a regular basis.
This sends a mixed, confusing message to the children about swearing.
Previous research into swearing has shown that it has a significant impact with problems at home, in school, and at the workplace.
The frequency of swearing has traditionally peaked around a person's teenage, and declined thereafter.
The new data presented, however, suggests that swearing is occurring at a younger age, suggesting that the peak may also shift.
Children do not appear to be yet using worse swear words than in the past — just common swear words more often, according to the study.
Though there are over 70 different common taboo swear words in the English language (some of which also vary from English-speaking country to country), 10 frequently used words account for over 80% of common swearing: f---, s---, hell, damn, goddamn, Jesus Christ, a---, oh my god, bitch and sucks.
"As soon as kids can speak, they are using swear words. That doesn't mean they know what adults know, but they do repeat the words they hear," said Jay.
The study was presented at the Sociolinguistics Symposium.
