Fatherhood, Behavioral Health, and Criminal Legal System Contact over the Life Course

Life course theories suggest that fathers’ lifetime criminal legal system contact could contribute to poor parent–child outcomes via deterioration in couple relationship quality and fathers’ behavioral health. Using paired, longitudinal data from the Multi-site Family Study (N = 1,112 couples), the current study examines the influence of three dimensions of fathers’ life course legal system contact on individual and parent–child outcomes. In fitted models, accumulated system contact in adulthood predicts fathers’ later depressive symptoms and drug misuse, which in turn predict diminished father–child relationship quality (as reported by both co-parents). Fathers who were older at the time of their first arrest had poorer relationships with their children’s mothers and, in turn, poorer behavioral health and parent–child outcomes. Conditions of confinement during fathers’ most recent prison stay do not significantly predict later parent–child outcomes, net of the influence of age at first arrest and accumulated criminal legal system contact in adulthood.