Abstract: With the negative impact of the imbalance of birth sex ratio and the unequal marital strategy in spouse-owning field, rural elder youth are currently facing greater mate difficulties and pressures. The high and unsustainable marital payment, the relative age limit of spouse selection, the multi-category and difficult spouse choice predicament, constitute the main pressure of spouse selection of elder youth. Long-term unmarried elder youth bring many potential and obvious social risks to rural society, resulting in increased pressure on youth individuals and their parents, prominent conflicts between family members, the spread of irrational beliefs and the rise of misconduct. To ease the pressure on spouse selection and prevention and control of social risks, we must tap the sources of spouse-selection pressure and social risks, and take more efforts to participate in and coordinate with them.

Key words: rural elder youth, marriage strategy, mate selection pressure, social risk