Sally proposes the idea that one's sexual history prior to marriage may be linked to whether one ends up getting divorced. this best represents which step of the scientific method?

I believe the answer is: hypothesis

Hypothesis refers to the initial statement/judgement that researcher has to a certain phenomenon before conducting the research. Even though hypothesis tend to be based on critical thinking, it could not be seen as scientifically valid since it still has not been backed by objective evidence.

answer; the above statement is (true);