a review of higher-order factor analysis interpretation strategies
;Bilgin Navruz;Robert M. Capraro;Ali Bicer;Mary M. Capraro
bmc international health and human rights2015Vol. 6pp. 72-94
173
navruz2015journala
Abstract
The purpose of the present paper was to summarize exploratory second and third-order factor analyses and
explain interpretation strategies for the higher-order factors, specifically, Gorsuch’s product matrix, the
Schmid and Leiman solution, and Thompson’s orthogonally rotated product matrix solution. Exploratory factor
analysis is a multivariate technique to reveal information about latent constructs from the measured variables.
When researchers choose an oblique rotation, they believe either their factors are correlated or the best solution
will result from an oblique rotation. Whenever primary factors are correlated, extracting higher-order factors
from an inter-factor correlation matrix is vitally important to understand data from a different perspective. The
SAS syntax is provided along with heuristic datasets to assist interested researchers in exploring the
techniques. Advantages of each method are discussed.