Family criminal legal system exposure and early adolescents’ pubertal development: the mediating role of family strain

Pubertal trends, wherein adolescents today are experiencing puberty earlier than prior generations, have coincided with the expansion of the criminal legal system, which is disproportionately affecting communities of color. However, whether pubertal development and criminal legal system exposure among adolescents are interrelated is unknown. We tested whether family members’ criminal legal system exposure predicted adolescents’ pubertal development, whether family strain explained the relation between criminal legal system exposure and pubertal development, and whether race/ethnicity moderated our results. We used 3 yearly waves of longitudinal data among a national sample of 9518 adolescents. Results indicated that 40% of Black, 20% of Latinx, 16% of adolescents of other races or ethnicities, and 10% of White adolescents experienced 1 or more family criminal legal system exposures. In structural equation models within a case-crossover design controlling for measured confounders and unmeasured confounders that do not change over time, including neighborhood-level socioeconomic status and crime, family criminal legal system exposure predicted adolescents’ advanced pubertal development, and family strain explained this relation between family criminal legal system exposure and pubertal development. The approach to law and order in the United States has public health implications that may be perpetuating health inequities, as accelerated pubertal development can have downstream consequences across the life course.