I think as evidence to the idea that sustaining a romantic relationship is difficult, divorce rates provide some backing. They're not the Alpha and Omega on th

I think as evidence to the idea that sustaining a romantic relationship is difficult, divorce rates provide some backing. They're not the Alpha and Omega on the matter, but it clearly shows that A- The people were attempting to create and sustain a long term romantic relationship and B- They were unable to do so for some reasons. It could be a correlation and not causation thing as well though. I think it's difficult to provide anything truly concrete showing that intimate relationships are difficult to maintain using statistics. Much like the original article, there's just far too many moving parts (cultural expectations, communication skills differences, personal traumas, trust building, etc) that play into the equation.