Higher spousal age difference may sometimes instigate dominancy by husbands in different reproductive health decisions, especially when the wives are much younger, leading to unfavorable health outcomes. This study aims to investigate the likely effects of higher spousal age difference on fertility behavior among married adolescent girls in Bangladesh using Demographic and Health Survey 2007. It is hypothesized that adolescents with comparatively older husbands tend to get more children and have children earlier than their counterparts. Alongside bi-variate analysis this research employs binary logistic regression and Poisson regression models to identify the determinants of different fertility behaviors. About 43 % of the adolescents were married before the legal age (18 years) at marriage for girls in Bangladesh. About 22.3 % of the adolescents had spousal age difference 5 years or less. Almost half (47 %) of the married adolescents have their first child within one year of marriage. Poisson regression model suggested that the relative risk of having children among adolescent with spousal age difference 5 years or less was 0.554 compared to the adolescents with spousal age difference more than 15 years. The relative risk increased to 0.730 for spousal age difference between 6 – 10 years. Binary logistic regression model suggested that adolescents having spousal age difference 16 years and above were 3.227 times significantly more likely to have their first child within one year of their marriage compared to adolescents having spousal age difference 5 years or less. This study confirms that higher spousal age difference influences both timing and number of birth among married adolescents, hence recommends for special interventions.

Keywords: Adolescents, fertility, logistic regression, poisson regression, spousal age difference

Fertility has been one of the major issues of population policies in Bangladesh. Currently married women who are still childless have different demographic characteristics and reproductive health conditions. Much can be done in terms of family planning and reproductive health targets if the characteristics of this group is well understood. This paper explores the fertility behavior of the childless women in Bangladesh using Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey 2007 dataset. Among 10,146 surveyed currently married women 11% (n=1,112) reported to have no children. Most of these women (88.7%) were aged less than 30 years. Among the childless women 59.4% were fecund, 27.1% were currently pregnant and the rest were in-fecund or at menopausal stage. Among the childless women 18.9% were currently using contraception and another 14.5% reported to have unmet need for contraception. Overall 54% childless women had desire to have children within two-year time. About 76% of the respondents preferred 2 children family norm. About 11% of the childless currently married women had experience of either pregnancy loss or termination. Two binary logistic regression models were fitted to explore the determinants of ‘current use of contraception’ and ‘unmet need for contraception’. Finally, the research suggests important policy recommendations.

Keywords: Childless women, fertility, logistic regression