design will be incorporated further in the future and the
entire theoretical model should be evaluated, using a structural
equation with latent variables approach.
It has been suggested from previous studies (for example,
Coyne & DeLongis 1986) that therapeutic and preventive
efforts will be most successful when they proceed from a
specific understanding of target populations, environmental
settings, target behaviours and the nature of the optimal
congruence between them. Presently, the social support
literature is limited in what it can offer to such efforts. This
study suggests that it is more likely to make contributions if
theory and research do not become prematurely focused on
decontextualized cognitive processes, with the exclusion of
the circumstance in which these processes purportedly occur.
Taken together, the type of illness (CHD) and time phase
(chronic) provide a context to integrate aspects of a comprehensive
understanding and assessment for a specific model of
family stress, perceived social support, and coping. These
findings support of the scheme for the resiliency model of
family stress, adjustment and adaptation and can be used for
both preventive screening of high-risk families for health care
professionals and family centred care and as part of the
overall evaluation and intervention for families who have a
child with chronic illness.