Positive, prospective effects of social support have been found in previous research about families who care for children with a chronic condition (Kazak 1986, Patterson et al. 1992, Garwick et al. 1998). However, families with a child with a chronic illness have often been described as socially isolated from formal and informal sources of support (Patterson & McCubbin 1983, Byrne & Cunningham 1985, Kazak 1986). Kazak and Wilcox (1984) found that social networks of these parents were denser than comparison families’ networks and that this higher network density was associated with higher levels of maternal stress. Perceived availability of support, in particular, has been found to buffer the effect of stress on psychological and physical health problems