Test of Gross Motor Development-3: Item Difficulty and Item Differential Functioning by Gender and Age with Rasch Analysis

Abstract

The assessment of motor proficiency is essential across childhood to identify children’s strengths and difficulties and to provide adequate instruction and opportunities; assessment is a powerful tool to promote children’s development. This study aimed to investigate the hierarchal order of the Test of Gross Motor Development-Third Edition (TGMD-3) items regarding difficulty levels and the differential item functioning across gender and age group (3 to 5, 6 to 8, and 9 to 10 years old). Participants are 989 children (3 to 10.9 years; girls n = 491) who were assessed using TGMD-3. For locomotor skills, appropriate results reliability (alpha = 1.0), infit (M = 0.99; SD = 0.17), outfit (M = 1.18; SD = 0.64), and point-biserial correlations (rpb values from 0.14 to 0.58) were found; the trend was similar for ball skills: reliability (alpha = 1.0), infit (M = 0.99; SD = 0.13), outfit (M = 1.08; SD = 0.52); point-biserial correlations (rpb values from 0.06 to 0.59) were obtained. Two motor criteria: gallop, item-1, and one-hand forehand strike, item-4, were the most difficult items; in contrast, run, item-2, and two-hand catch, item-2, were the easiest items. Differential item functioning for age was observed in nine locomotor and ten ball skills items. These items were easier for older children compared to younger ones. The TGMD-3 has items with different difficulty levels capable of differential functioning across age groups.

Positive effects of a 9-week programme on fundamental movement skills of rural school children

“…These criteria require overall body coordination and timing from the child to make use of their arms to produce force while maintaining body balance to assist in projecting the body forward. In agreement, Valentini et al (2022) also report that these criteria seem to make these skills more difficult. Kwon and Maeng (2022) also shared a similar observation by presuming that the gallop and skip skills of the TGMD-3 should be further investigated to verify the learning effects and the comprehensiveness of the performance criteria of these skills.…”

Validity and reliability of the Gross Motor Development III Test for Indonesian children

“…The rater agreement index, or the validity of the Aiken item, is then determined to be 0.8, indicating high validity. If the TGMD III test has a high level of validity, it is used to assess early childhood gross motor skills [27]. Defines validity as the extent to which the accuracy and precision of a measuring instrument performs its measuring function.…”

Do Fundamental Movement Skill Domains in Early Childhood Predict Engagement in Physical Activity of Varied Intensities Later at School Age? A 3-Year Longitudinal Study

“…The related literature lacks comprehensive longitudinal studies examining pathways from total FMS or skill domains scores to PA of varied intensities in early childhood; furthermore, existing results are contradictory. The current study aimed to provide a more accurate picture of the longitudinal pathways from FMS scores to accelerometer-measured PA levels utilizing skill domains and multiple PA intensities (light-to-vigorous PA [LVPA], LPA, moderate PA [MPA], MVPA, VPA, and SB), considering the effect of age (Barnett, Lai, et al, 2016;Farooq et al, 2020;Lounassalo et al, 2019;Valentini et al, 2022), gender (Barnett, Lai, et al, 2016;Ricardo et al, 2022;Zheng et al, 2022), and BMI (Jago et al, 2020;Lopes et al, 2021). This study was guided by two research questions that asked how total FMS score and, separately, LMS and OCS scores in children 3-8 years old predict time spent engaged in PA at different intensities 3 years later.…”