How to make a 95 percent stable marriage...

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From a prospective follow-up cohort study of 56 couples interviewed before marriage, one year post-marriage and eight years post-marriage - published by Thomas B Holman, 1996:

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Average age of subjects: 21 - range 18-26.

Time between first acquaintance and engagement: mean 5 months (mode 4 months).

Divorce rate at 8 years c. 4 percent (two couples from the fifty-six).

At eight years post-marriage, couples were asked to evaluate the shortness of the mate-selection process. Most felt it was about right, a few felt it was too long, only one felt it was too short. 

Nature of choice: in this group the decision to marry was an individual, a personal choice. Parents, friends and others were sometimes consulted, but often not.

However, couples did seek spiritual input and divine confirmation of their choices: a 'spiritual manifestation' of the rightness of the choice.

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Reference: TB Holman. Commitment making: mate selection processes among active Mormon American couples. In Mormon Identities in Transition edited by Douglas Davies. Cassell: London, 1996.  

Oh yes... I 'forgot to mention', this study was of active members of the LDS church who were married in a Temple where they were sealed to one another for 'time and eternity'. 

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