ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the multidimensional and complex connections between stress and parenting. It focuses on stresses associated with the experience of parenting, the connection between stress and parenting is considered more globally, as parents can be stressed by events that are external to childrearing processes and these stresses can influence the ways parents behave within the family system. The reciprocal, bidirectional nature of the connections between parenting stress and behavior problems is well established. Although stability is apparent, continuity in the experience of parenting stress is less so. Developmental disorders are similar in many ways to chronic illnesses in childhood, and yet there are important distinctions to be drawn with respect to socioemotional and stress processes. The unique risk context of chronic childhood illness should encourage further research scrutiny with respect to its associations with parenting stress. Crossover and coparenting processes are just two systemic processes that merit further attention in parenting stress research.
