Why are so many Americans enchanted with the idea of marriage but increasingly disenchanted with beingmarried? This paper will try to shed light on that question by looking at recent social scienceresearch on patterns and predictors of marital success and failure. Social science is better equipped to make generalizations about groups than it is to provide guidance on the particular situation of an individual, couple or family. Therefore, this paper will focus onsome sociodemographic characteristics that are well-known predictors of marital success or failure. It will also consider the broader social and cultural trends that have profoundly transformed the meaning, purpose and stability of contemporary marriage. (Author abstract)