Hunger Exposure and Post-Traumatic Stress Among Venezuelan Youth: A Mixed-Methods Study in the U.S. and Colombia

The Venezuelan pre-migration context has exposed millions of people to extreme hardship, with youth particularly vulnerable to the psychological toll of forced displacement. The present mixed-methods study investigates the relationship between pre-migration hunger and post-traumatic stress (PTS) symptoms among Venezuelan migrant youth resettled in Colombia and the United States (U.S.).

Using an explanatory sequential design, we analyzed survey data from 735 Venezuelan youth between 12 and 17 years old who resided in either Colombia (n = 433) or the U.S (n = 302) and conducted in-depth interviews with 56 participants from the larger sample (33 in Colombia and 23 in the U.S). The mean age of the sample was 14 years old and was evenly distributed between boys (49.93%) and girls (50.07%).

Quantitative findings indicated that hunger significantly predicted PTS symptoms among youth who had resettled in the U.S. and Colombia. Qualitative data illustrated how hunger functioned as a traumatic experience, shaped by family sacrifice, emotional distress, and long-term psychological impact.

These findings underscore how hunger functions as both a source of material deprivation and a psychological stressor, with implications for trauma-informed care, culturally responsive interventions, and migration policy.