Does age gap between couples influence their contraception and fertility?

Contraceptive use is one of the most important determinants of fertility. Couple adopt contraception either to avoid all future births or to postpone the next birth. Very scanty work could be found out on the effect of age gap on contraceptive use and fertility behavior. In this paper an attempt has been made to explore the impact of age gap between spouse on the use of contraceptive and fertility behavior in Madhya Pradesh, where fertility level has been consistently higher and the overall contraceptive use is quite low. The dataset of National Family Health Survey (NFHS-III, 2005-2006) has been used for the present study. This study reveals that though the impact of age gap between spouses on contraceptive use is positive but its effect on the use of any temporary family planning method is negative. This implies that the use of any temporary family planning methods increases with decrease in the age gap between husband and wife. The level of fertility increases with increase in the age gap between husband and wife. Further there is decline in the level of fertility with increase in the educational attainment of husband and wife. Other relevant factors like age at marriage of women, exposure to mass media, religion and caste might also affect the relationship between age gap and fertility.