A new Penn State study on bullying may be an eye-opener for parents.

They asked 3,000 kids about their recent run-ins with bullies and found that they were most often bullied by their friends or friends-of-friends.

In fact, it was much less common to be bullied by kids they didn’t really know.

Why? Proximity.

They’re around each other a lot and even best friends can be pretty mean when they’re competing over things like grades or someone’s attention.

Many parents may not even know it’s happening, either…and kids might not even think it’s bullying because their friends are doing it…but it is.

Researchers hope it helps kids realize they’re not alone and to talk about it to someone if a friend is bullying them.