The study developed and tested an integrative prospective structural equation model of the interrelationships among social resources, coping strategies, positive health behaviors, and quality of life in cardiovascular disease over a four-year time-period. It also contrasted predictive findings relating to cardiac illness, stroke, and hypertension with predictive findings from matched-control groups of healthy individuals and individuals with very serious (cancer) and moderately serious (arthritis) noncardiovascular disease.