Model invariance of the Motor Competence Assessment (MCA) from early childhood to young adulthood

Abstract

The Motor Competence Assessment (MCA) is an innovative instrument to assess motor competence along the lifespan. The MCA model and normative values were recently established from the age of 3-to-23 years old. The purpose of this study was to validate MCA from early childhood to young adulthood. One thousand participants representing four age groups (3–6, 7–10, 11–16, 17–22 years) with 250 participants each, were assessed. Invariance of the MCA model along the age groups – configural, metric and structural – was tested using multigroup CFA. The MCA model showed to fit well all age groups. The multigroup unconstrained model showed a very good fit (NFI=0.99; TLI=0.99; CFI=0.99; RMSEA=0.03). A formal test for the invariance of loading coefficients returned a non-satisfactory goodness-of-fit adjustment and a significant difference with the unconstrained model (Δχ2 = 539.57; Δdf = 18; p= .00). The structural invariance testing did not show formal invariance between factor correlations (Δχ2 = 73.04; Δdf = 9; p= .00) but the fit of the model was acceptable (above 0.96 and a RMSEA of 0.05), indicating that correlation values inter factors are stable. This study adds information for the validation of the MCA as a useful instrument for assessing motor competence throughout the life cycle.