Barriers and Drivers of Cat Containment Behavior for New Zealand Cat Owners
Description
This study, using audience segmentation analysis, examined the main barriers and drivers of participation in cat containment 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.
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Participants were recruited using a Lucid Marketplace online sample (Lucid, 2022) and comprised 395 cat owners residing in NZ, aged 18 years and over. An online survey was conducted in February 2022 using the Qualtrics online survey platform (Qualtrics, 2022). The study received blanket ethics approval from the Human Ethics Committee of the University of Canterbury. Participants’ informed consent was obtained. Demographics information was collected first, then definitions of ‘free-roaming cats’, ‘cat containment’, ‘cat enclosure’, and ‘cat escape-proof fence’ were provided, and after that cat containment intentions and behavior were assessed. Finally, items pertaining to COM to perform cat containment were completed. Participants who did not pass the security checks (e.g., bot and duplicate response detection; n = 23), did not currently own a cat (n = 508), were born after 2004 (n = 1 ), and completed the questionnaire in less than 4 minutes or failed the three attention check items (e.g., “to show that you are paying attention, we ask you to select ‘agree’”; n = 112 ) were screened out. The grouping variable 'COM-B profiles' was produced using a Latent profile analysis (LPA) to classify participants into four homogeneous subgroups based on their scores on COM variables. The scales 'Capability to Contain', 'Physical Opportunity to Contain', 'Social Opportunity to Contain', 'Concern About Roaming', 'Containment is Beneficial for Cat Beliefs', 'Pro-Containment Beliefs', and 'Automatic Motivation to Contain' were created by summing scores from relevant items. Items were firstly reversed scored when required to ensure all items represented higher containment behaviour and intentions, capability, opportunity and motivation.