An Item Factor Analysis of the Mooney Problem Check List

Abstract

A large obverse factor analysis was carried out on item responses given to the Mooney Problem Check List by three groups of adolescents between 12 and 18 years of age: 173 emotionally disturbed, 134 delinquent, and 273 normal controls. Individual analyses were performed for each of the three groups on the High School form of the test, and for the emotionally disturbed and normal groups on the Junior High school form. One large general factor emerged from each of the five analyses. It was suggested that the singular factor for the groups employed was the result of an overly narrow set of problem areas in the original item sampling.