Development and Validation of the Reasons for Swearing in Sport and Exercise Questionnaire

Swearing is a powerful and emotionally charged form of language that has recently gained increased scholarly attention. While commonly used for emotional release, its role in sport and exercise self-talk remains understudied. Prior evidence suggests that swear-ing may aid in pain management, emotion regulation, and performance enhancement, yet research in athletic contexts has largely focused on conventional self-talk. To address this gap, the present study developed and validated the Reasons for Swearing in Sport and Exercise Questionnaire (RSSEQ), a novel tool assessing motivational reasons for swearing among competitive athletes, coaches, and recreational exercisers. A total of 513 partici-pants completed the RSSEQ. Exploratory (n = 333) and confirmatory (n = 180) factor anal-yses supported a three-factor structure: Stress and Emotional Catharsis, Mental Strength Enhancement, and Coping with Physical Discomfort and Pain. Men reported greater use of swearing for mental strength and pain-related coping, while no gender differences were observed for emotional catharsis. No significant differences emerged between competitive and recreational athletes or between team and individual sport participants. These find-ings establish a foundation for future research on the psychological functions of swearing in sport and exercise, encouraging further exploration of its effectiveness and potential in-tegration into mental training strategies, alongside more traditional self-talk approaches.