WESTPORT–Sure, Westport parents are under a lot of pressure, with school activities packing their calendars, but at least they’re not as stressed as those frayed nerves in Darien struggling to meet the community’s “financial expectations.”

That’s one conclusion in a survey that ranked zip codes by parents’ stress levels, commissioned by A Mission for Michael, a network of mental health centers in California, Minnesota and Virginia.

The good news is, no community in Connecticut made the top 10 – or even the top 50. Darien came in at 60, Westport followed at 67 and Glastonbury finished 106th.

The study surveyed 3,012 parents about the everyday pressures of raising children, including childcare costs, household bills, school demands, busy schedules, commuting, and the challenge of juggling work with family life.

So, who won the top spot – the most stressful place for parents? That honor goes to Connecticut’s neighbor to the west, Scarsdale, New York, which “has long been associated with academic excellence, making it one of the most education-focused communities in the country,” the survey said. “In a community where achievement is highly visible, many families feel pressure to ensure their children remain competitive.”

Finishing out the top five, in order, were: Huntington, New York; Westfield, New Jersey; and the California communities of Irvine and Palo Alto.

In Westport, where “many families are drawn to the area’s excellent schools,” parents “often find themselves managing exceptionally busy family calendars,” the survey said. “School activities, sports teams, enrichment programs, and academic expectations can quickly fill evenings and weekends, leaving little downtime for either children or adults.”

The pressure in Darien comes from “considerable financial expectations,” the survey found.

“Parents often face the combined costs of housing, extracurricular activities, childcare, and educational opportunities while trying to maintain a comfortable family lifestyle,” it said. “The pressure frequently comes from the cumulative cost of keeping up with community norms.”

The study was based on a survey of 3,012 parents conducted in June 2026, an announcement from the A Mission for Michael said.

“Respondents were asked about the biggest pressures facing modern families, including childcare costs, school expectations, extracurricular commitments, commuting, household expenses, and balancing work and family life,” the announcement explained. “The survey was carried out via Cherry Signals using a geographically representative panel balanced by age, gender, household income, and region. Results were weighted where necessary to reflect U.S. population benchmarks, while data quality checks included bot detection, geo-verification, speeding checks, and manual review of responses.”

Anand Meta, executive director at A Mission for Michael, said parental stress typically is caused by multiple factors.

 “It is usually the result of several pressures building at once – financial strain, lack of time, academic expectations, work demands, and the feeling that parents have to be constantly available and constantly performing,” Meta said. “What this study shows is that in some communities, those pressures appear to be especially concentrated. When parents are stretched too thin for too long, it can affect not only their own mental health, but the emotional climate of the whole household.”