Last modified on Mon 22 Feb 2021 05.16 EST
About 7% of children have attempted suicide by the age of 17 and almost one in four say they have self-harmed in the past year, according to a paper in the British Journal of Psychiatry, and experts say the figures could rise as a result of the pandemic.
The figures come from analysis of the millennium cohort study, which follows the lives of about 19,000 young people born at the start of the millennium in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The report says that when the 17-year-olds from the cohort were asked if they had ever hurt themselves âon purpose in an attempt to end your lifeâ, 7% replied yes. When asked if they had self-harmed during the previous year, 24% responded that they had.