ABSTRACT
In this article, we examine the influence of some explanatory variables related to educational attainment and labour-market position for males and females on the hazard rates of entry into a first partnership in two historical periods in contemporary Spain. Our goal is to highlight the causes of the present low level of first unions in Spain and to assess different approaches to the interpretation of changes in first partnership formation. Some changes have been observed between the development period (1965–74) and the crisis period (1981–90) in gender patterns of family formation: on the one hand, for males, the positive relationship between the probabilities of entering into a first partnership and educational attainment and labour-market position has been strengthened; on the other hand, for women, the negative relationship between the labour market and first partnership formation has disappeared.
