Increasingly, young American women are engaged in multiple roles, combining job and family responsibilities. To investigate the links between role groups (employment, marriage, parenthood), and pressures, satisfactions, and physical health among young women, a subsample of 162 white women, aged 18 to 34, drawn from the 1978 Health in Detroit Study, completed interviews about health and stresses; 144 women subsequently kept health diaries for 1 week or longer. An analysis of the results showed that, although motherhood and employment increased certain pressures, marriage tended to diminish them. Both marriage and employment were linked to well being, self-esteem, and personal control. Lowest competence was found among never married women, who had least resistance to stress and lowest self-esteem, and among previously married women. Women with the fewest roles were least content, while those with the most roles were very content despite the pressures they experienced. Employment and motherhood were linked to good health, while previously married women had distinctly worse health. Overall, women with multiple roles learned how to buffer the increased pressures they often confronted, and women without multiple roles exploited their satisfactions when they were fortunate enough to feel them. (BL)