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 (Delta chi(2) = 539.57; Delta df = 18; p= .00) . The structural invariance testing did not show formal invariance between factor correlations (Delta chi(2) = 73.04; Delta df = 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.