Family formation, a process that includes union formation, fertility, and their timing and order, has become increasingly diverse and complex in Europe. We examine how the relationship between socio-economic background and family formation has changed over time in France, Italy, Romania, and Sweden, using first wave Generations and Gender Survey data. Competing Trajectories Analysis, a procedure which combines event-history analysis with sequence analysis, allows us to examine family formation as a process, capturing differences in both the timing of the start of family formation and the pathways that young adults follow. Regarding timing, socio-economic background differences in France and Sweden have remained relatively small, whereas in Italy and Romania higher parental education has become more strongly associated with postponement. Pathways tend to diverge by socio-economic background, particularly in Sweden and France. These results indicate that while family formation patterns have changed, they continue to be stratified by socio-economic background.

家庭形成，一个包括工会形成、生育、时间和顺序的过程，在欧洲变得越来越多样化和复杂。我们使用第一波世代和性别调查数据研究了法国、意大利、罗马尼亚和瑞典的社会经济背景与家庭形成之间的关系如何随时间变化。竞争轨迹分析是一种将事件历史分析与序列分析相结合的程序，它允许我们将家庭形成视为一个过程，捕捉家庭形成开始时间和年轻人遵循的路径的差异。关于时间安排，法国和瑞典的社会经济背景差异仍然相对较小，而在意大利和罗马尼亚，较高的父母教育与推迟的关系更加密切。途径往往因社会经济背景而异，尤其是在瑞典和法国。这些结果表明，虽然家庭形成模式发生了变化，但它们继续按社会经济背景进行分层。