The Role of Compassion and Self-Compassion in Community Integration and Emotional Well-Being: A Systematic Review...

Homelessness is widely regarded as one of the most severe forms of social exclusion and represents an urgent public health challenge. Notably, compassion has been proposed as a construct of social cognition closely linked to emotional well-being and as a facilitator of community integration. Although the importance of compassion within intervention teams and public attitudes toward people experiencing homelessness (PEH) has been emphasized, little is known about the processes of compassion and self-compassion among PEH. Hence, a systematic review was conducted with two main objectives: (a) to examine the processing of compassion and self-compassion in PEH, (b) to analyze the effects of compassion-based interventions on community integration and emotional well-being among PEH. Following PRISMA guidelines, quantitative and qualitative studies were included, identified through an unrestricted search of three major multidisciplinary databases: PubMed, PsycINFO, and Web of Science. Fourteen articles, comprising 1,591 participants, met the inclusion criteria. Depending on study characteristics, three risk-of-bias tools (ROBINS-E, RoB 2, and JBI) were applied, and all studies met the pre-established standards for their respective assessments. The findings highlight the multifaceted influence of compassion and social cognition in PEH. Higher levels of self-compassion and adaptive social-cognition skills were found to function as protective factors against psychological distress and depressive symptoms. With special relevance to the primary subgroups identified in the literature, these capacities were generally associated with better community integration, resilience, and overall emotional well-being. Furthermore, while the reviewed interventions suggest a potential to foster self-compassion in PEH, limited sample sizes and model heterogeneity prevent definitive conclusions regarding their impact on social exclusion. Overall, these results suggest a significant role for compassion and self-compassion within both the mental health and social domains of PEH, indicating that fostering these capacities may be key to building a more inclusive society and a more effective support system for this population.