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Psychology
in
[he Schools
Vo/umc=
21.
April.
1984
CROSS-VALIDATION
OF
THE FACTOR STRUCTURE OF
THE McCARTHY SCALES FOR KINDERGARTEN CHILDREN
PHYLLIS
ANNE
TEETER
University
of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee
This study was designed to cross-validate the factor structure of the McCarthy Scales
of Children’s Abilities for children
5
to
6M
years of age. A factor analysis was per-
formed
on
a group of
105
children with a mean General Cognitive Index (GCI) of
115.42. The subjects ranged in age from 4-1
I
to
6-7
with a mean age of
5-6.
The age
variable was partialled from each score using multiple regression procedures. Five fac-
tors were generated, including Verbal Comprehension, Quantitative-Reasoning,
Memory, Perceptual-Performance, and Motor factors. These data were subsequently
compared to Kaufman’s factor analytic studies with the McCarthy standardization
group, and
to
the scale structure of the instrument.
In
general, the overall factor
pattern of this study provides further evidence of the construct validity of the
McCarthy Scales for kindergarten children.
The McCarthy Scales
of
Children’s Abilities (MSCA) has been
in
use for more than
10 years now, and has become one of the major instruments for assessing the cognitive-
intellectual abilities of children
2%
to
8%
years
of
age (Kaufman
&
Kaufman,
1977;
Sattler,
1982).
The MSCA is comprised of
18
subtests categorized into six separate
in-
dices (McCarthy,
1972):
Verbal, Perceptual-Performance, Quantitative, General
Cognitive, Memory, and Motor. The scales have incorporated developmental theories
and reflect McCarthy’s extensive clinical experience with young children (Kaufman
&
Kaufman,
1977).
Research with the MSCA has been diverse, including studies in-
vestigating differences between blacks and whites (Arinoldo,
1980;
Long,
1977);
screen-
ing young children who are “at-risk” for learning problems (Schodlatz,
1978);
predicting
achievement for children with Spanish as a primary language (Shellenberger,
1978);
assessing the mental functioning
of
learning disabled children (Kaufman, in press); and
differentiating learning disabled from normal and mentally retarded individuals (Knack,
1978).
In general, Kaufman (in press) supports the use of the MSCA in most situations
requiring the psychoeducational assessment of preschool children between the ages of
3
and
6 or 6%
years, and suggests that after the age of
6
or
6%
the WISC-R should receive
preferential use.
Although the individual scales were intuitively and clinically derived, Kaufman
(1
975)
demonstrated that the factor structure
of
the McCarthy with the standardization
sample generally corresponded with the six indices originally reported by McCarthy
(1
972).
While Kaufman found that there were developmental trends evident across the
age groups (from
2%
to
8%
years), consistent factors were derived
for
the Motor, Verbal,
and Memory areas across all ages. The General Cognitive and Perceptual-Performance
factors also were relatively stable for four of the five age groups, with the Quantitative
factor emerging only at age
5
and again for age
6
and above (Kaufman,
1975).
Even
though specific subtests loading on each factor did not reflect the exact indices suggested
by McCarthy, Kaufman concluded that the factor structure lent general support to the
Requests for reprints should be directed to Phyllis Anne Teeter, Dept.
of
Educational Psychology,
Box
4 13, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI 53201.
This project was supported by a grant from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Giaduate School. The
author would like
to
thank Ellen Angelo, Mary
Lou
Haas, and Patrick Klass for their assistance in the data
collection phase
of
this study.
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