WASHINGTON - Nearly 1 in 10 kids are bullied electronically, and girls are more likely to be on the receiving end than boys, suggests a new study.

According to study co-author Ronald Iannotti, a researcher with the National Institutes of Health, children continue to harass each other through electronic means such as text messages.

But other forms of bullying, however, remained much more common, such as spreading rumours, turning fellow pupils into outcasts and threatening others through words and violence.

The study suggested that the power to keep kids from turning into bullies or victims lay within the parents.

"Parental warmth and support may improve your own psychological development, meaning you're less likely to feel a need to degrade others to improve your own self -esteem," Wires News quoted the researcher as saying.

Experts observed a 2005 national survey that quizzed 7,182 students in grades 6 through 10.

Cyber bullying was found to be much less common with eight percent saying others bullied them through computer pictures and messages.

Another 6 percent said they got bullying messages through cell phones.

Stephen Russell, Youth and Families at the University of Arizona, also put focus on bullying in middle school, which is often overshadowed by high school bullying.

However, the director of the Frances McClelland Institute for Children said: "What remains needed in this field of study is attention to the reasons that kids bully one another … much of which have to do with bias or discrimination based on how a student looks or acts, their sexuality or gender, their race or religion, or their social class - whether they are perceived as poor."

The study was published online in the Journal of Adolescent Health. (ANI)