This article reevaluates the issue of the prevalence of depressive conditions (clinical depressions and depressive symptoms) in the elderly with the help of recent epidemiological data. It then underlines several key aspects of the etiology of depressive conditions of older adults. The perspective is a psychosocial analysis, which considers the etiological contributions of three types of factors: the socio-demographic status of the person, life events, and the resources of the person. The article concludes by delineating the implications for research in this area.

For the past two decades the issue of housing for the aged has caught the attention of many in the private as well as in the public sectors, and attempts have been made to improve the situation. If the problem persists today, gerontologists, among others, should be called to account, since they were instrumental in the formulation of many of the interventions. The problem has been approached generally in terms of adaptation to aging and adaptation to the environment. The ecological models currently used agree that happiness can be found at different states of equilibrium between the person and the environment and that the elderly arrive at this state of equilibrium through a special “docility” towards the environment; a “docility” which would be linked to aging. However, this docility would appear to be historically and socially contingent rather than being “natural”. It is thus important to explain the social production of old age and the docility which is tied to it.