Stress refers to any interference that disturbs the functioning of an organism at any level and in turn produces a situation that is natural for the organism to avoid. Parental stress refers to this interference in the context of parenting. Parental stress specifically refers to the interference of functioning in the context of the parent–child relationship, which affects the parent’s self-esteem and self-worth. This entry describes the history of the parental stress concept, measurement of parental stress, factors affecting increased parental stress in parents of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (ID/DD), well-being of parents of children with ID/DD, and syndrome-specific impacts on parental stress.