One in four UK teenagers in care have attempted to end their lives, study says

Research also shows teenagers in care are four times more likely to try to end their lives than peers with no care history

One in four teenagers in care have attempted to end their own life, and are four times more likely to do so than their peers with no care experience, according to a landmark study.

The research analysed data from the millennium cohort study, which follows the lives of 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 lives, the analysis found, compared with only one in 14 (7%) of teenagers with no experience of being 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 teenagers with care experience have.