This study investigated the factor structure of the French Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fifth Edition with five standardization sample age groups (6-7, 8-9, 10-11, 12-13, 14-16 years) using hierarchical exploratory factor analysis followed by Schmid-Leiman procedure. The primary research questions included (a) how many French Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fifth Edition factors should be extracted and retained in each age subgroup, (b) how are subtests associated with the latent factors, (c) was there evidence for the publisher's claim of five first-order factors and separate Visual Spatial and Fluid Reasoning factors, (d) what proportion of variance was due to general intelligence versus the first-order group ability factors following a Schmid-Leiman procedure, and (e) do results support the age differentiation hypothesis? Results suggested that four factors might be sufficient for all five age groups and results did not support the distinction between Visual Spatial and Fluid Reasoning factors. While the general factor accounted for the largest portions of variance, the four first-order factors accounted for small unique portions of variance. Results did not support the age differentiation hypothesis because the number of factors remained the same across age groups, and there was no change in the percentage of variance accounted for by the general factor across age groups.
Keywords: Schmid–Leiman (SL) procedure; WISC-VFR; age; age differentiation hypothesis; exploratory factor analyses; factor extraction criteria; structural validity.