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.

Bad news, parents. Image via iStock.

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.

Texting affects girls and their grades more than boys. Image via iStock.

She continued:

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.

Another thing to worry about. Image via iStock.

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?