EFFECTS OF ANTI-PROFANITY CITY ORDINANCE AMONG ADOLESCENTS

Effects of the Anti-Profanity City Ordinance to the Frequency of Swearing

of Middle Adolescents

Swearing is a part of language that is recognized by world and is very

important to note in daily conversation; depending on the circumstances it has

positive and negative effects (Finn, 2017). It can be a response to social distress

or physical injury in order to alleviate pain (Phillipp & Lombardo, 2017).

Profanity can also be used as an expression of honesty (Feldman, Lian,

Kosinksy & Stillwell, 2017). According to research on abusive language (Khalid,

Gulzar & Ul Amin, 2016), foul language has become the norms of modern

society since it affects the social life of every individual. Swearing in

interpersonal communication is influenced by contextual variables such as

speaker-listener relationship, social and physical setting, and the topic of

discussion (Jay & Janshewitz, 2008)

According to Jay (2009), swearing is considered as taboo and can be

profane. Taboo words can refer to sexual innuendos (blow job, cunt),

blasphemous (God, Jesus Christ), disgusting things (shit, crap), animal names

(bitch, pig, ass), ethnic-racial-gender slurs (nigger, fag), ancestral allusions (son

of a bitch, bastard), and offensive slang (fuck, tit). It can be mildly offensive, to

greatly offensive, depending on the context (Jay & Janshewitz, 2008). It is

mostly perceived as antisocial, harmful and abusive (Stone, McMillan &

Hazelton, 2015).

Over history, there have been numerous studies that are aimed to

determine the origins or influences of the use of swear words. According to

EFFECTS OF ANTI-PROFANITY CITY ORDINANCE AMONG ADOLESCENTS 2

Jay’s neuro-psychosocial theory (2009), an individual learns how to swear in

order to express his or her aggression towards other. Studies (Simpson, Duarte

& Bishop, 2016; Suganob-Nicolau, 2016), have discovered that parents most

especially the mother, have a great impact on influencing the frequency of

swearing of an individual. Classic empirical research suggests that people can

also imitate both verbal and physical aggression in media (Bandura, Ross &

Ross, 1961), so foul language used in violent games, another form of media, is

another origin of swearing in individuals today (Ivory & Kaestle, 2013).

Numerous studies agree that verbal abuse through the use of swearing

has a lot of negative effects. A clinical research on verbal abuse done to

children (Teicher, Samson, Polcari, & McGreenery, 2006) suggests that being

exposed to profanity during one’s childhood years can leave a negative model

for interpersonal relationships to the child and can become as a behavioural

response in future relationships. Being put down and shamed through cursing

from parents as a means of discipline brings down the self-esteem of a person

and can lead to poor academic performance (Loh, Calleja, & Restubog, 2011).

Nurses who constantly hear swearing in their line of work tend report to

become highly stressed, feel anxiety, and even fear (Stone, McMillan &

Hazelton, 2015). Continuous use of swearing can also lessen the social support

of the swearer (Vingerhoets, Byslma & De Vlam, 2013).

Peers influence more than parents when it comes on swearing practices,

it is because adolescents are easily subject to peer pressure (Steinberg and

Monahan, 2007). Peer pressure changes an individual during adolescence

EFFECTS OF ANTI-PROFANITY CITY ORDINANCE AMONG ADOLESCENTS 3

neurobehaviorally and psychosocially, resulting in a desire to be the same to

the actions, beliefs, and ways of one’s peer.

A study investigated the behaviour of swearing in adolescents and

discovered that they use swear words as means to relieve their stress despite

their knowledge of it being perceived as generally bad (Baudin & Paramasivam,

2014). Men are inclined to swear more than women and Güvendir (2015)

explains that this is due to the evolution of man’s need to engage in

aggressiveness in order to gain access to productive females. Adolescents even

use the F-word in texting, social networking sites due to frustration or difficulty

of finding a decent word in expressing themselves (Chetan & Fathima, 2015).

Swearing can also be used to elicit humor and clarification a certain group

identity (Vingerhoets, Bylsma & De Vlam, 2013).

Although many researchers have investigated the behavior, effects,

influences, and origins of swearing, there are relatively few studies that have

been conducted on the effects of resisting swearing. Jay, King and Duncan

(2006) have discovered in their study that there are parents who soap their

children as means to discipline them, but individuals who experienced this

reported that they still continue to swear even until today. Using euphemisms

to deal with the impoliteness and negative effects of swearing has been a

proposed solution (Bowers & Pleydell-Pierce, 2011). None of these studies

however have investigated the effects of the proposed solutions. This gap in

literature motivates this study since swearing is a prevalent linguistic activity

that can experienced almost anywhere in the world.

EFFECTS OF ANTI-PROFANITY CITY ORDINANCE AMONG ADOLESCENTS 4

An anti-profanity ordinance known as Ordinance Number 118, series

2018, was implemented in the city of Baguio in the Philippines on November 5,

2018. It was observed that profanity was mostly heard in computer shops or

arcades where children in differing ages, especially those playing violent games,

used swearing to insult one another. A research on the content analysis of

profanity in violent video games supports the explanatory note of the ordinance

(Ivory, Williams, Martins & Consalvo, 2009). A quantitative study (Coyne,

Stockdale, Nelson & Fraser, 2011) also proved that aggressive behavior and

profanity in adolescents originated from their exposure to profanity in media.

The purpose of this study is to systematically examine the effects of the

anti-profanity city ordinance to adolescents who constantly uses swear words

to those who use it less. Several studies have focused on the use of swearing

among adolescents (Baudin & Paramasivam, 2014; Chetan & Fathima, 2015;

Suganob-Nicolau, 2016), but none of these have focused on the changes to the

use of swearing in adolescents after a solution was implemented. The goal is to

see whether or not having a city ordinance against swearing is an effective

solution or not.

Participants in this research are selected and willing Senior High School

students who swear or use foul language. It is presumed that their ages are in

middle adolescence (15-17 years old). The prediction is that there will be a

significant difference in their usage of swearing before and after the ordinance

was implemented. The second hypothesis is that the respondents’ age and

gender will have no effect on the changes of their swearing behaviour. Lastly,
EFFECTS OF ANTI-PROFANITY CITY ORDINANCE AMONG ADOLESCENTS 5

the changes in their swearing frequency will depend on their perception of how

the ordinance was implemented.

 EFFECTS OF ANTI-PROFANITY CITY ORDINANCE AMONG ADOLESCENTS 6

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