Recent social trends in America, including the increased employment of women, the dramatic growth in single-parent households, heightened attention to the ageing of the population and to older families, and changing attitudes toward gender roles, guide the focus of this study which considers personal characteristics and family relationships, and how they are linked with well-being over the life course. The authors discuss how these trends have affected work/family relationships and how the far-reaching social, demographic and economic implications of these changes inform some of the concerns of particular groups, including one and two-job families, single-parent women and their married counterparts, older and younger couples, and modern and traditional spouses. The study offers observations on persons in different circumstances which have produced, and are likely to continue to produce, lasting changes in the structure of American society.