Parents of children with disabilities show higher levels of stress than parents of children without disabilities (Almogbel et al., 2017). The child's characteristics are often correlated with parental stress, and it is of particular concern that chronic stressors have a great impact on the quality of parents' intimate relationships (Hartley et al., 2011). The aim of this study is to examine the stress and positive and negative interactions in intimate relationships among parents of children with disabilities. The study also looked into association of parental stress and child's characteristics, which included the child's verbal skills, frequency of challenging behaviours and the child's level of independence. The study was conducted online on a sample of 248 parents of children with disabilities in the Republic of Croatia. Measures included the Croatian adaptation of the OBVL-K Parental Stress Questionnaire, the Inventory of Affection and Antagonism in Marriage and questions about the child's characteristics and socio-demographic data. The results show a statistically significant positive association between parental stress and the frequency of challenging behaviours. Furthermore, a significant negative association between parental stress and positive interactions and a positive association between parental stress and negative interactions between partners were found. The study did not show a statistically significant association between parental stress and child's level of independence, nor the child's verbal abilities. The obtained results provide insight into certain processes within the families of children with disabilities, especially the need to strengthen intimate relationship between parents which is not yet sufficiently recognized as a necessary factor for empowerment and support. The results of the research can serve as guidelines for practice in terms of understanding the needs of parents of children with disabilities and strategies to improve support provided by professionals and systems.