The worrying way texting affects girls more than boys.

Having kids permanently glued to their phones is enough to drive most parents crazy.

But it turns out that texting affects girls and their grades at school far more than it does boys.

A new study has found that while boys and girls text at around the same rate, it can have serious impacts on the academic performance of girls, but not their male peers.

The research, which was published by the American Psychological Association this month, found that girls were more likely to "text compulsively", which caused problems at school.

Lead researcher Kelly Lister-Landman explained the reasons behind the worrying results.

“It appears that it is the compulsive nature of texting, rather than sheer frequency, that is problematic...Compulsive texting is more complex than frequency of texting. It involves trying and failing to cut back on texting, becoming defensive when challenged about the behaviour, and feeling frustrated when one can’t do it," she said.

She continued:

Borrowing from what we know about Internet communication, prior research...has shown that boys use the Internet to convey information while girls use it for social interaction and to nurture relationships. Girls in this developmental stage also are more likely than boys to ruminate with others, or engage in obsessive, preoccupied thinking, across contexts. Therefore, it may be that the nature of the texts girls send and receive is more distracting, thus interfering with their academic adjustment.

It's especially bad news as texting is now more popular with teens than ever before.

According to a 2012 study, some adolescents send and receive 167 texts a day on average, with 63 per cent texting every single day.

If you notice your teen is losing sleep, lying about how much they are texting or excessively preoccupied with their phone, it might be time to step in.

Like you needed one more reason to worry about teenagers...

Do you think teenagers text too much?