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.