Numerous studies have shown that the main factor influencing the educational and vocational orientation of
the child with mental impairment is represented by the family, followed by the group of friends, TV programs
and reading; in other words, the orientation of students towards one subject or another and towards one
profession or another does not depend only upon their native abilities and skills, but is closely related to the
influence of the family, the school or even society at large (Lloyd, 2006; Mitchekk, 2010).
A particular aspect that we shall refer to in this paper concerns the influence of parental stress and of the
prospect for the future upon the educational and vocational interests in students with mental impairment, given
the fact that parents are aware of the situation of their children, they know what their possibilities are, they realize
what these are capable of, as compared to normal children, hence the presence of stress. A situation in which
stress may be amplified is when parents realize that their child is unable to reach a certain level of development