How do pre-migration crisis exposures and post-migration cultural stressors shape mental health symptoms among Venezuelan youth in the United States and Colombia?
Lee S, Salas-Wright C, et al. • Social science & medicine (1982) • 2026
Pre-migration crisis exposures did not independently predict mental health symptoms among Venezuelan youth, but significant interaction effects emerged such that pre-migration crisis exposures buffered the associations of post-migration cultural stressors with mental health symptoms across both US and Colombia destination contexts.
Key Findings
Results
Pre-migration crisis exposures did not independently predict depressive, anxiety, or PTSD symptoms in either the US or Colombia.
Sample included 732 Venezuelan youth: 302 in the US (51% girls; mean age = 14.03, SD = 1.69) and 430 in Colombia (49.4% girls; mean age = 14.04, SD = 1.62)
This null finding held across all three mental health symptom domains (depressive, anxiety, and PTSD) in both destination countries
The finding challenges assumptions that pre-migration trauma exposure directly translates into post-migration mental health problems among migrant youth
Results
Discrimination positively predicted depressive and anxiety symptoms among Venezuelan youth in the United States.
This association was specific to the US context and was not replicated for PTSD symptoms
The finding highlights discrimination as a salient post-migration cultural stressor in the US destination context
Discrimination was examined as one of three post-migration cultural stressors alongside acculturative stress and negative context of reception
Results
Acculturative stress positively predicted depressive and anxiety symptoms among Venezuelan youth in Colombia.
This association was specific to the Colombia context and was not found for PTSD symptoms
The finding indicates that despite sharing a common language and regional proximity, acculturative stress remains a significant stressor for Venezuelan youth in Colombia
Acculturative stress in Colombia predicted the same symptom domains (depression and anxiety) as discrimination did in the US, but through a different cultural stressor mechanism
Results
Pre-migration crisis exposure buffered (moderated) the association between discrimination and PTSD symptoms in the United States.
This represented a significant interaction effect in the US sample
The direction of the moderation was such that higher pre-migration crisis exposure attenuated rather than amplified the association between discrimination and PTSD symptoms
This buffering effect was specific to PTSD symptoms and discrimination in the US context, not observed for depressive or anxiety symptoms in the US
Results
Pre-migration crisis exposure buffered the association between acculturative stress and depressive symptoms in Colombia.
This represented a significant interaction effect in the Colombia sample
The moderation pattern paralleled the US finding in direction (buffering), but involved a different cultural stressor (acculturative stress) and different symptom domain (depression)
The country-specific nature of these interaction effects underscores the importance of destination context in shaping migrant youth mental health
Results
Negative context of reception did not emerge as a significant independent predictor of mental health symptoms in either country.
Negative context of reception was examined alongside discrimination and acculturative stress as a post-migration cultural stressor
This null finding applied across all three mental health symptom domains in both the US and Colombia samples
The result differentiates negative context of reception from discrimination and acculturative stress as a predictor of Venezuelan youth mental health
Discussion
The type of post-migration cultural stressor that most strongly predicts mental health symptoms differs by destination country, with discrimination being salient in the US and acculturative stress being salient in Colombia.
In the US, discrimination predicted depressive and anxiety symptoms while acculturative stress did not emerge as a significant predictor
In Colombia, acculturative stress predicted depressive and anxiety symptoms while discrimination did not emerge as a significant predictor
Authors interpret this as reflecting different structural and social contexts faced by Venezuelan migrants in each country
Findings 'underscore the need to account for the types of cultural stressors and symptom dimensions across different destination contexts among Venezuelan youth'
What This Means
This research suggests that for Venezuelan young people who have migrated to either the United States or Colombia, the traumatic events they experienced before leaving Venezuela (such as violence, political crisis, or displacement) do not directly cause depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder on their own. Instead, what matters more for their mental health after migration are the cultural and social challenges they face in their new country. However, the specific challenges that matter most differ depending on where the young person ends up: in the US, experiencing discrimination was linked to higher depression and anxiety, while in Colombia — despite sharing a language with Venezuela — the stress of adapting to a new culture was the stronger predictor of these same symptoms.
Surprisingly, this research also suggests that having experienced more crisis events before migrating actually appeared to reduce the harmful mental health effects of certain post-migration stressors, rather than making things worse. Youth with higher pre-migration crisis exposure showed a weaker link between discrimination and PTSD in the US, and a weaker link between acculturative stress and depression in Colombia. This unexpected 'buffering' effect may reflect resilience or coping skills developed through adversity, though the exact mechanisms remain to be understood.
These findings matter practically because they suggest that mental health support for Venezuelan migrant youth should not focus solely on processing past trauma. Addressing ongoing stressors in the destination country — particularly discrimination in US contexts and cultural adjustment challenges in Colombian contexts — may be equally or more important. Interventions and policies aimed at reducing discrimination and supporting cultural adaptation could meaningfully improve mental health outcomes for this large and growing population of displaced youth.
Lee S, Salas-Wright C, Maldonado-Molina M, Lee T, Calderón I, Pérez-Gómez A, et al.. (2026). How do pre-migration crisis exposures and post-migration cultural stressors shape mental health symptoms among Venezuelan youth in the United States and Colombia?. Social science & medicine (1982). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2026.119406