One in four teenagers in care have tried to end their lives, study finds

One in four teenagers who have been in care have tried to end their own life, and teenagers with care experience are almost four times more likely to attempt to kill themselves than peers who have never been in care, a large study has found.

- Tobi Thomas Health and inequalities correspondent

The research analysed data from the millennium cohort study, which follows 19,000 people born in the UK between 2000 and 2002, and considered how out of home care, including foster, residential and kinship care, affected the social and mental health outcomes of the participants.

More than one in four (26%) 17-year-olds who have lived in foster or residential care have attempted to end their own life, the analysis found, compared with one in 14 (7%) teenagers who have never been in care.

Although previous research has found that about 7% of UK children have attempted suicide by the age of 17, this study, conducted by academics from the UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies and funded by the Nuffield Foundation, is the first to calculate the elevated suicide risk for teenagers with care experience.