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

Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is a widely used but poorly understood statistical procedure. This paper described EFA and its methodological variations. Then, key methodological variations were used to evaluate EFA usage over a 10-year period in five leading developmental disabilities journals. Sixty-six studies were located and evaluated on multiple procedural variations. Only 35% (n = 23) of studies used EFA; principal components analysis...