Study Finds Sharply Elevated Suicide Risk Among Teenagers in Care

One in four teenagers with experience of state care in the UK has attempted to take their own life, making them four times more likely to do so than peers raised outside the care system, according to a major new study reported by The Guardian. Researchers described the findings as among the clearest evidence yet of severe mental health inequality.

The analysis drew on data from the Millennium Cohort Study, which has tracked around 19,000 people born between 2000 and 2002. It examined outcomes for young people who experienced foster care, residential care, or kinship care, comparing their mental health, wellbeing, and social outcomes with those of teenagers who had never been in care.

Researchers found that 26% of 17-year-olds who had lived in foster or residential care had attempted suicide, compared with 7% among those without care experience. While earlier research identified a 7% suicide attempt rate among UK teenagers overall, this is the first study to quantify the elevated risk linked specifically to care experience.

The study also identified significantly higher levels of self-harm and depression among care-experienced teenagers. More than half had self-harmed, compared with under a quarter of their peers, while nearly four in 10 reported severe depressive symptoms, more than double the rate seen among those without care backgrounds.

In addition, teenagers who had been in care were more likely to report early sexual activity and unplanned pregnancies. Almost one in five had either been or caused a pregnancy by age 17, compared with just 4% among teenagers who had not experienced care, highlighting broader patterns of vulnerability and disadvantage.

Experts and charities described the findings as alarming and called for urgent reform, particularly to prevent support ending abruptly as young people enter adulthood. The Department for Education said the figures were unacceptable and pledged earlier, better-coordinated mental health support, stressing the need to reduce preventable harm among care-experienced young people.