Marriage Aspiration, Marriage Squeeze and Anomia among Unmarried Rural Male Migrant Workers in China

Based on the theory of strain-anomie, this paper studies how marriage aspirations and the marriage squeeze jointly influence anomia among unmarried rural male migrant workers in the context of China’s gender imbalance. Multivariate analyses of data from a survey of Rural-Urban Migrants, in X City, China, show that unmarried rural male migrant workers have a high level of anomia when they have high marriage aspirations and feel the marriage squeeze simultaneously. This finding provides additional evidence that the marriage squeeze has a direct negative impact on unmarried rural male migrant workers.