Bone and Joint Institute
Factor structure, stability, and congruence in the functional movement screen
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-3-2018
Journal
Measurement in Physical Education and Exercise Science
Volume
22
Issue
2
First Page
109
Last Page
115
URL with Digital Object Identifier
10.1080/1091367X.2017.1381608
Abstract
© 2017 Taylor & Francis. The scoring scheme for the functional movement screen implicitly assumes that the factor structure is consistent, stable, and congruent across different populations. To determine if this is the case, we compared principal components analyses of three samples: a healthy, general population (n = 100), a group of varsity athletes (n = 101), and a group of firefighters (n = 397). The congruence of the principal components derived through these analyses were evaluated across all of the samples, using Tucker’s congruence coefficient. Factor extraction was guided by parallel analyses, and interpretation was facilitated by Varimax rotation. We observed factor instability, low factor congruence, and inconsistent factor structure. Additionally, we observed a two-factor structure of the functional movement screen in all of our sample groups. These analyses suggest that, although the independent elements of the functional movement screen may continue to be used, use of the composite score is not supported by the factor structure of the measure.
