Group-Based Community Interventions for Social Reintegration of Marginalized Adults with Mental Illness: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
This paper presents a preregistered systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of group-based community interventions for socially marginalized adults with mental illness in OECD countries. Extensive literature searches identified 28,980 records from which 49 studies (349 effect sizes) contributed to the meta-analysis. Outcomes were categorized as social reintegration, including social functioning, loneliness, employment, and quality of life, or mental health, including anxiety, depression, and psychotic symptoms. Sophisticated multivariate meta-analysis showed that group-based interventions improved both social reintegration (g = 0.195, 95% CI[0.122-0.268]) and mental health (g = 0.215, 95% CI[0.090-0.340]) relative to control conditions. Effects were generally invariant across sensitivity and moderator analyses, and showed little indication of publication bias. Nearly half of the included studies were preregistered, strengthening confidence in the evidence. Overall, these findings suggest that group-based interventions can support multidimensional recovery among adults experiencing both mental and social problems, while offering cost-effective alternatives to individual care.
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@article{dalgaard2026,
author = {Dalgaard, Nina T. and Jensen, Jakob K. and Adada, Jasmin S.
and Jensen, Maya C. F. and Bengtsen, Elizabeth and Vembye, Mikkel
H.},
title = {Group-Based {Community} {Interventions} for {Social}
{Reintegration} of {Marginalized} {Adults} with {Mental} {Illness:}
{A} {Systematic} {Review} and {Meta-Analysis}},
journal = {Open Science Framework},
date = {2026-05-12},
url = {https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/kpvam_v1},
langid = {en}
}