Boomerang Father

From teaching them to ride a bike, to teaching them how to drive, fathers can play a significant role in the lives of their children. Some fathers are always present, while some were never there to begin with, and a few are boomerang fathers. Boomerang fathers are fathers that aren’t a permanent staple in the household, but are a permanent staple in the lives of their children. A recent article claims to have found a correlation between the presence of a boomerang father and lower risk of depression in their daughters. The main claim that this article presents is that a boomerang father does decrease the risk of depression in girls, with the percentage of girls experiencing depression equal to those with stable fathers, but lower than those
If this is true, then, in society, this would primarily affect military households or households in which the father travels for months at a time on business endeavors. According to the article, research was done with nearly 4,000 18-19 year olds, with a near equal number of male and female participants. This research evaluated if the participants experienced symptoms of depression, how often these symptoms occurred, the severity of the symptoms, and the presence of their father, with the categories being stable, absentee or unstable, and boomerang. A correlation was found between rates of depression in girls and the presence of a boomerang father; however, the research states that they could not identify precisely why this is. The assumption being made is that a father that is partially consistent is better than a father that is never around or home for only a visit, and that a boomerang father prevents the mother from searching for a new relationship, limiting the number of unrelated men that enter the household that may cause a daughter unnecessary stress or uncertainty. However, as previously mentioned, researchers are still uncertain why the correlation occurs, with the previous sentence being purely an