Depuis une vingtaine d’années, les travaux portant sur la motivation des personnes âgées ont bien montré l’importance de l’évaluation cognitive que les personnes font de leur contexte de vie, notamment en termes d’autodétermination. Cette évaluation cognitive détermine l’orientation motivationnelle pour les activités quotidiennes (notamment les niveaux de motivation intrinsèque et extrinsèque) et a simultanément un retentissement sur diverses variables, telles que l’estime de soi ou la satisfaction de vie. Ces travaux chez le sujet âgé s’inscrivent dans une perspective plus générale, associant motivation et bien-être mental, principalement par le biais des perceptions de compétence et d’autodétermination. La présence ou l’absence de symptômes dépressifs faisant classiquement partie des variables opérationnalisant le bien-être mental, la présente étude a pour objectif de mettre en relation, chez la personne âgée, la motivation vis-à-vis des activités quotidiennes et la mesure de la dépression.

This article is focused on motivation and depression in later life. For about 20 years, research on the motivation of elders has underlined the importance of the cognitive evaluation of life contexts, notably in terms of self-determination. This cognitive evaluation determines the motivational orientation for daily activities (notably the levels of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation). The purpose of this research was specifically to study the relationships between the existence of four types of motivation (intrinsic, self-determined extrinsic, nonself-determined extrinsic and amotivation) and the consequences for adaptation and well-being. The study, therefore, focused on the possible links between motivation and geriatric-depression level and explored the nature of this link.

Forty persons aged 60 or over (31 women: 80.48±9.24; nine men: 80.56±9.48) who live in nursing homes (20 elderly) or in their own homes (20 elderly) were enrolled. Elderly persons were assessed with specific and standardized tools: the Elderly Motivation Scale (EMS, in the French version: EMPA) and the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). For the statistical analyses of the results, correlations and Mann-Whitney test were used.

We found that in elderly people, the motivational styles (the four types of motivation) can be reliably measured and are related to geriatric depression. First, significant positive links were noticed between intrinsic motivation and depression scores and between self-determined extrinsic motivation and depression scores. Conversely, significant negative links were noticed between nonself-determined extrinsic motivation and depression scores and between amotivation and depression scores. The most self-determined elders presented low-depression levels, whereas the more nonself-determined elders showed high-depression levels. Moreover, motivational styles significantly differed in the two groups (depressive or not depressive). The most depressive elders showed significantly lower-intrinsic and self-determined motivation levels.

Our results support the hypothesis that motivational styles are related to important aspects (adaptation, well-being and depression) of the life of elderly people. Self-determination theory appears of high interest in research on aging and especially on the determinants of well-being in the elders.