Ottawa -- A national survey of Canadian consumers indicates 72 percent of respondents said they believe the current recession will turn for the better in a year's time.

The Gandalf Group's quarterly Consumerology survey of 1,637 adults last month for the Bensimon Byrne advertising company found 89 percent said they feel the economy is in decline, the Globe and Mail reported Monday.

That's in sharp contrast to last July, when 63 percent said the economy was growing, the report said.

As for the year-away scenario, 55 percent said they think the economy will be doing better, while 28 percent expect to be doing worse on a personal level.

Pollster David Herle said the findings raise a glimmer of hope for retailers and advertisers.

"If consumers, who are already retrenching in their spending, but are behaving in a way that they think this thing is going to be relatively short, we could well be in for another correction in consumer spending," Herle said.

London -- A survey of British 11-year-olds finds most have heard their parents swearing and 40 percent say they use bad language themselves.

Ninety percent of the 3,000 youngsters questioned said their parents swear in front of them and almost as large a percentage said the older generation and celebrities who cuss in public are setting a bad example, The Daily Telegraph reported. But only one-third said they have asked their parents to stop.

Peter Foot, chairman of the Campaign for Courtesy, said parents must start thinking about what they are teaching their children.

"We need parents to be the ones to put their children right before they ever get to school with 'please' and 'thank yous,' rather than leaving it to teachers," he said. "But this is awful, appalling really. There are some age groups now who can't say a single sentence without the F-word in it."