Situating systemic social oppression as collective trauma: An interdisciplinary analysis

Systemic social oppression is a chronic, complex, transmissible, and cumulative source of collective trauma that targets groups of people based on shared identities and experiences. While various disciplines rely on collective trauma as a theoretical framework to elaborate on the pervasive impacts of systemic oppression, other disciplines allude to the study and measurement of this phenomenon but neglect to characterize it under this specific framework. Without fully integrating these multidisciplinary perspectives and developing reliable methods of experimentation and data collection, researchers will remain limited in their ability to provide a truly holistic perspective of collective trauma's impact on the health and well-being of marginalized communities. This integrative, interdisciplinary analysis draws from various disciplines to define and conceptualize collective trauma resulting from systemic social oppression. Furthermore, this article seeks to explore how collective trauma contributes to inequities in health and social conditions among historically marginalized groups. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).