vadodara shreyansh gupta 14 failed in his midterm examinations owing to lack of interest in studies and also started spending less time with friends gupta had recently suffered a breakup that left him broken with a lack of selfconfidence and poor scores but he may not be the only one as failed relationships are driving several teenagers towards depression loss of selfconfidence identity crisis poor academic performance and lack of social life are major consequences of a failed relationship counsellors say most children who get into relationships belong to troubled families while the rest try it as an experiment or due to peer pressure the relationships fail because of ignorance they get into relationships without understanding what is in store for them the relationships are more physical in nature than emotional they are not able to distinguish between liking and loving someone said khushboo mehta a citybased school counsellor the failed relationships take a toll on their life their social skills are severely affected and they stop trusting people they also start isolating themselves from their surroundings they even start bunking classes and distancing themselves from their parents and peers added mehta nearly 70 of teenage kids today are into or have been in relationships children between the ages of 13 years and 17 years are the most affected i regularly attend cases of failed relationships resulting in poor academic performance and lack of interest in life among students said nishita bakshi a child psychologist unlike college students teens get into relationship in a span of a few days as they misinterpret a crush or liking for love when it fails it breaks them leading to emotional and social issues she said sexting on the rise among teenagers counsellors say the trend of sexting is increasing among teens in the city sexting refers to sharing sexually explicit content that includes messages pictures and videos among others through phone once they get into a relationship many boys and girls indulge in sexting the dangerous consequences of this many include sharing of the content among peers once the relationship fails this adversely affects the reputation of the person whose pictures are shared in most cases the teenager gets blackmailed into indulging in physical intimacy or continuing after the breakup to avoid sharing of images said nishita bakshi a child psychologist some major reasons for teenagers engaging in sexting include peer pressure as a romantic gesture selfesteem issues and as a sexual favour it gives them a thrill and a feel of being cool it makes them feel rebellious among others she said with easy access to smartphones and instantmessaging facilities it becomes difficult to curb this practice by giving your child a basic phone you would be able to limit it to a certain extent bakshi added