Abstract
Objectives The Test of Gross Motor Development-3 (TGMD-3) evaluates fundamental gross motor skills across two domains: locomotor and ball skills. This study aimed to perform a full psychometric assessment of this test in a large sample of Italian pre- and primary school children.
Design Cross-sectional and test-retest study design.
Method Children N = 5210; mean age years = 8.38, SD = 1.97; % females = 48 completed three trials, including one practice. Only the scores of the two latter ‘formal’ trials were recorded for the evaluation. Factorial validity and measurement invariance of TGMD-3 across age and gender groups and test-retest reliability for the overtime measure consistency were tested. Item response theory analysis further tested single items’ performances.
Results Explorative and confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the two-factor structure of the TGMD-3. Multi-group confirmatory factor analyses indicated that there were no significant reductions in model adjustments between the configural, metric and structural invariance solutions for gender and age groups. Test-retest results ranged between 0.967 and 0.990 for both skill sets across age groups. Item response theory analysis using a graded response model showed low standard error and high-test information levels covering a wide spectrum range of both locomotor and ball skills.
Conclusions These results highlight the strong construct validity and reliability of the TGMD-3 to measure gross motor skills in children across gender and age groups. Item response theory analysis evidenced how the performance criteria included in this test cover a wide range of gross the motor skills spectrum. The use of TGMD-3 may inform motor development programs and support curricular decisions in schools.
5. Conclusion
The TGMD-3 is a reliable instrument to assess gross motor skills in pre- and primary school children. This instrument can be simultaneously adopted across boys and girls with age range from 3 to 11 years. The use of TGMD-3 may inform motor development programs and support curricular decisions in schools. In sum, our results have significant implications in educational settings where it is important to verify in a reliable way motor development among children. This is crucial if we consider how important motor developmentis in childhood.1 The TGMD-3 may thus be a very useful instrument for researchers and teachers to identify children’s motor delays and motor competence in gross motor skill development.
