Memories of Punishment for Cursing

Abstract

Researchers do not know how parents respond to children's cursing or what effect parents' responses have on children later in life. We conducted two studies with college students: a content analysis of 47 personal narratives of childhood cursing and an item analysis of a 70-item questionnaire administered to 211 students. Contrary to gender differences found in previous narrative and cursing research, men's narratives were as emotional as women's narratives, and women used as many curse words as men. The two studies confirm that cursing is a common childhood problem and that mothers play a more prominent disciplinary role than fathers do. Parents respond with physical forms of punishment (e.g., spanking) but not as frequently as verbal reprimands. Our data are the first to document the prevalence of washing children's mouths with soap. College students have vivid memories of punishment; however 94% reported that they continue to curse.

The Media Scapegoat and Mom’s Mouth

“…Mothers tended to be the primary disciplinarian, and verbal punishment was more common than physical punishment. Although the participants recalled the punishment with accuracy, it was recorded that 94% currently use swear words (Jay et al, 2006). This study supports Jay's (1992Jay's ( , 1996 earlier findings: Children learn to swear at an early age and continue to do so throughout life.…”

“…Swearing may provide a release of negative emotion that cannot be exhibited in other forms. The use of swearing to release such emotion may be attributed to classical conditioning (Baruch & Jenkins, 2007;Jay, King, & Duncan, 2006). In addition, in certain social gatherings, individuals may use euphemisms in place of profanity or use profanity in a joking manner (Baruch & Jenkins, 2007).…”

“…It is ironic, however, that exposure to profanity within media is a determining factor in parental monitoring in Western culture of media sources, when exposure to swearing occurs primarily from the mother (Jay & Janschewitz, 2012). It is also ironic that mothers are the primary disciplinarians when it comes to the use of swear words by their children (Baruch & Jenkins, 2007;Jay et al, 2006).…”

Swearing by Peers in the Work Setting: Expectancy Violation Valence, Perceptions of Message, and Perceptions of Speaker

“…Jay, King, and Duncan (2006) surveyed college students, who reported childhood punishments for swearing ranging from verbal reprimands to soap in the mouth. However, punitive responses to swearing did not tend to stop further occurrences of the behavior (Jay et al, 2006). It is important to note that consequences for swearing are not always negative; consequences may be positive or neutral as well.…”

Sentence processing of taboo words: Evidence from eyetracking

“…New examples of aversive words can even be created via classical conditioning by pairing an electric shock with a neutral word (Staats, Staats, & Crawford, 1962). Interestingly, most people remember being reprimanded or physically punished as children for swearing (Jay, King, & Duncan, 2006) and it has been suggested that the degree of childhood punishment for swearing is positively correlated with one's autonomic reaction to taboo words (Tomash & Reed, 2013). Perhaps taboo words are another example of an aversive word, but one in which the aversive status is agreed upon by the vast majority of a population.…”