Currently, global urban-rural development is undergoing a paradigm shift from unidirectional urbanization to the bi-directional flow of factors between urban and rural areas. Driven by the Rural Revitalization Strategy, the trend of youth-to-rural migration continues to strengthen, yet academia still lacks a systematic explanation of the mechanisms underlying this behavior. Employing the "Information-Motivation-Behavior" (IMB) model as a theoretical framework, this study empirically investigates the behavioral logic of the youth migrating to the rural areas, drawing on survey data from 1282 respondents across 27 provincial-level regions in China between 2023 and 2025. Findings indicate that youth-to-rural migration follows a systematic pathway of "information stimulation-motivation reconstruction-behavioral selection", rather than isolated individual decisions. Regarding the information dimension, endogenous information exerts a significant negative influence on motivation but positively impacts behavioral conversion; exogenous information strongly stimulates migration motivation yet carries risks of mismatch with real-world scenarios, with awareness of rural policy systems demonstrating the most pronounced incentive effect. The motivational structure is characterized by "life rationality outweighing instrumental rationality", where life-oriented motivations (e.g., family companionship, ecological environment) significantly outweigh work-oriented motivations (e.g., job seeking). Furthermore, clear and stable motivations serve as key factors in transforming intention into actual behavior. Accordingly, this research proposes governance strategies to support and encourage youth migration to rural areas across three dimensions: optimizing information supply, enhancing rural living quality, and broadening local development pathways. This study provides theoretical foundations and practical references for facilitating two-way flows of urban-rural factors and strengthening talent support for rural revitalization.
GU et al. (2026) studied this question.