Evaluating the Use of Exploratory Factor Analysis in Developmental Disability Psychological Research

Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is a used but poorly understood statistical procedure. paper described EFA and its methodological Then, key methodological variations were used to EFA usage over a 10-year period in five leading mental disabilities journals. Sixty-six studies were and evaluated on multiple procedural variations. Only (n = 23) of studies used EFA; principal analysis was the model used most often (n = 40, Orthogonal rotation was used most often (n = 39, 59%). large portion of studies ran analyses with a subject: ratio larger than 5:1 (n = 49, 74%). Most employed multiple criteria for retaining factors (n = 68%). Overall, results indicated that published recommendations and guidelines for the use of EFA are ignored.