Debra and John are a classic example of post divorce stress. Debra would like to move on with her life but feels that John over steps his boundaries and keeps returning into her life. He routinely invites himself in and helps himself to whatever is in the cabinets after dropping off the children.

During the counseling session, John’s new mate is in attendance. She wants to make sure that the session is not able re-opening the marital relationship. John and Debra are advised to keep the parental relationship in place, but set up mutual boundaries.

According to the Social Exchange Theory, stress on pre/post divorce is directly related to shared leisure time and perceptions of the positives and negatives. The contribution of children equates to the amount of leisure time previous marriages and remarriages also.

The Family Stress Theory of Recoup ling is based on the double ABC-X model and the contextual family stress model. A+aA (Hardships and pileups) include but are not limited to implementing two different cultures, adding family members to the equation, boundary and role uncertainties. The b+bB (resources) include the individual’s health and mental state, willingness and availability of resources to change. The step families’ resource requires expectations that are realistic along with open communication. In the c+cC (perception), divorced couples view remarriage as a way to correct past mistakes. Some individuals fear that the step children or step parent may unbalance the new family structure. Researchers have concluded that bon-adaptation is the step families’ successful adjustment to new family member roles and expectations while keeping open boundaries for visitation of the non-residential parent and family members. Stress levels are lowering than families who have not reached bon-adaptation. It is also noted that bon-adaptation and mal-adaptation can occur simultaneously. Single mothers who remarry typically have less supervision over the children (mal-adaptation) but parent-child relationships improve along with more appropriate discipline which is a return to bon-adaptation.