[kaitai]

I think a lot of these metrics are really proxies for social support. Belonging to a church, having 200+ people attend your cheap wedding -- these are situations in which you know a lot of people, who might be helpful to you when the marriage gets tough. You can talk to your grandma about the three years in which she really wanted to divorce grandpa, but they stuck it out and things got much better when x happened. You can call your cousin and ask him if he can take the kids for the evening because your wife is sick and you can't deal with everyone and everything at once. You can borrow a car from your fellow choir member, or you can vent about your relationship stress or how you hate your kids that week.

Social supports smooth out money problems, health problems, and relationship problems. Money+health problems are the number one cause of divorce in America (that is, money discussions are the number one marriage stressor in the US, and health problems are the number one cause of bankruptcy in the US). If your parents/church/friends/cousins can help out with a loan/childcare/outright monetary gifts when certain economic or health sh&t goes down, your marriage is more likely to survive. That's not even counting emotional support and feelings-conversations.