Evidence from the UK Millennium Cohort Study. Teenage children of mothers who experienced out-of-home care: How are they doing?

It is well documented that care-leavers tend to experience more problematic post-16 transitions and outcomes compared to their peers, but less is known about the intergenerational transmission of disadvantages to their children. This research addresses several of the key areas of concern identified in the 2013 Care Leaver Strategy – education, employment, health including health- and risky-behaviours, crime – to help inform strategies to assist agencies working with care-leavers, in particular care-leavers who became parents and who might be struggling across domains. This study draws on the UK Millennium Cohort Study to examine the experiences of 16-18-year-old children of mothers who experienced out-of-home care during their childhoods (n=305) in comparison to children whose mothers were not in care (n=18,505). After accounting for the teenager’s sex, age, ethnicity, results in public examinations at age 16 and family socio-economic background measures together with the level of area deprivation they encounter, we find that the teenage children of care-experienced mothers have similar aspirations regarding attending university or entering a professional occupation, and they were just as likely to be in employment, education or training at age 17 as their peers. However, they were more likely than their peers to experience a range of poorer health outcomes and health behaviours: they reported higher levels of behavioural and mental health problems, including self-harm and suicide attempts; higher levels of illegal drug use and more had been cautioned by the police. The wellbeing of the most disadvantaged families in our society clearly needs to be better addressed if we are to minimise the intergenerational transmission of disadvantage associated with care experience being passed on to children in future generations.