Project aims to identify risk factors by comparing school and health records, paving the way for early intervention

Researchers are embarking on an ambitious project to see whether a child’s school record can provide vital clues as to whether they are at risk of suicide or self-harm.

Nearly one in 10 young people self-harm or have suicidal thoughts but understanding of the causes is limited, making prevention difficult.

By analysing anonymised school data for 180,000 10- to 17-year-olds in south London, including on attendance and performance, and linking it to their health and hospital records, researchers hope to identify the most important risk factors, paving the way for early intervention.

The lead researcher, Rina Dutta, a senior clinical lecturer in the psychological medicine department at King’s College London, said young people felt under more pressure than in the past, which had led to self-harm becoming almost normalised.



“We have got about three children in every state school class who will eventually have these issues so I think it’s good that we’ll be able to intervene earlier,” said Dutta. “If we are able to have a better picture of which schools in particular are having this issue then we can target potentially high-need schools and colleges and maybe the culture will change earlier and we can prevent future problems.”

The data will be drawn from Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark, which are all covered by South London and Maudsley NHS foundation trust.

It will include potentially stressful events for children, such as starting exams and changing schools, as well as absences and whether they have suffered bullying/abuse. The researchers will also have information on deprivation indicators at the schools, including the percentage of pupils receiving free school meals.



The school records can be linked to information held by health services and hospitals, although the researchers will receive it all as anonymised data that cannot be traced to individuals.

Dutta and colleagues will be able to look at whether a child has special needs or long-term physical health conditions and their levels of engagement – if any – with child and adolescent mental health services. Hospital records will show up whether a child has been admitted to A&E after self-harm or suicidal behaviour.

When put together, the researchers hope the data will help identify warning signs in school records that could lead to children and/or their schools being given targeted help in future.

Dutta said: “Individual-level risk factors such as mental ill health, abuse and neglect, bullying, social isolation or withdrawal, alcohol and illicit drugs, bereavement and experience of suicide are well known. Much less is understood about educational risk factors for self-harm and suicidal behaviour in young people, which is why our research is so important and innovative.

“As a team, we are really optimistic we will have some good data and results which will have an impact and enable us to intervene, which is what we want to be able to do.”

The project is being funded by the mental health research charity MQ. Sophie Dix, the director of research at MQ, said: “Rina’s project offers hope to the thousands of young people and their families who are devastated by suicide and self-harm. Right now, too many children are left struggling with their mental health in silence, without the help they desperately need.

“If schools and services were able to identify which young people are at risk, we could intervene early and save lives. This research offers the opportunity to fill that gap, highlighting the children most at risk of suicidal behaviours so we can get them vital support.”

The first official UK statistics on suicides among 10- to 14-year-olds, published last year, showed that between 2005 to 2014 a total of 98 children in that age group killed themselves. Research published last month found that annually between 2001 and 2014, across 10- to 19-year-olds, 37.4 girls per 10,000 of the population and just over 12 boys per 10,000 reported their first episode of self-harm.

Brain scan study

Researchers are analysing brain scans of young people across the world, as well as data on their behaviour, to try to predict who is in danger of suicide, in another project funded by MQ.

The Hopes project will examine brain images from around 4,000 young people across 15 different countries as part of an attempt to create the largest dataset of its kind looking at the emergence of suicide in young people.

Together with data on suicidal behaviour and traits, the researchers hope this will enable them to identify unique social and biological factors that make young people more likely to attempt suicide.

As well as brain scans, they will be collecting health service data, self-reporting on daily routines, monitoring through mobile phones and information gathered from personal interviews. Ultimately, their goal is to provide those working with young people with tools to predict individuals at highest risk of suicide, facilitating early intervention.

The international nature of the project leads the researchers to hope that it will yield results of relevance to young people in countries across cultural and income boundaries.



The project will be led by the University of Cambridge, working with scientists from the US and Australia.