Barriers and Drivers of Cat Containment Behavior for New Zealand Cat Owners

A quantitative online cross-sectional survey of 395 NZ cat owners aged 18 years and over was conducted, measuring containment intentions and behavior, and capability, opportunity, and motivation (COM) to perform cat containment. Results from bivariate correlations and multiple regression demonstrated that the COM factors predicted increased cat containment intentions and behavior.

Latent profile analysis identified four distinct segments of cat owners with unique COM profiles; engaged (6%), receptive (17%), ambivalent (48%), and opposed (30%). Validation analysis demonstrated that these groups all differed significantly in their cat containment intentions and behaviors. From these findings theoretically grounded behavior change interventions can be developed to target the causes of non-participation in cat containment for each of the identified cat owner segments, thereby improving the management of free-roaming cats in NZ.