To describe stress and coping in families of children with Smith-Magenis sy
ndrome, the present authors interviewed and received questionnaires from fa
milies of 36 children with this disorder. For measures of total stress, and
of parent and family problems, the best predictors were the family's numbe
r of friends and the child's degree of impairment on the Vineland socializa
tion domain; the single best predictor of parental pessimism was the child'
s degree of maladaptive behaviour. Although the stress levels of the famili
es of children with Smith-Magenis syndrome are comparable to the levels sho
wn by the families of children with Prader-Willi and 5p- syndromes, these l
evels are much higher than the stress levels reported by families of childr
en with mixed or non-specific developmental disabilities, Stress levels may
be similar across aetiologies involving high levels of maladaptive behavio
ur, but the correlates of family stress-particularly the moderating role of
family friends-seem specific to Smith-Magenis syndrome.