Despite several efforts put in place to address HIV and AIDS education, prevention and
control programmes in public universities in Kenya, students‟ utilization of Voluntary
Counseling and Testing (VCT) services is still very low compared to the students‟ total
population in the public universities in Kilifi and Mombasa counties in Kenya yet VCT
uptake is necessary to bring about behavior change among the university students.
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) prevalence among the young adults is still a
national concern that requires continued investigation even in institutions of higher
learning. Factors which have been investigated to affect VCT accessibility include;
stigma and discrimination, fear, cultural perception and ignorance among others. One of
the areas which have not adequately been investigated is Emotional Intelligence (EI)
and Self- Concealment (SC). The purpose of this study therefore was to investigate the
extent to which Emotional Intelligence and Self-Concealment could predict VCT
seeking behavior. The Theory of Emotional Intelligence by Mayer and Salovey and
Self-concealment Theory by Kelly and Achter were used. Correlation research design
was used to establish predictive relationships. A sample size of 368 students (Male 196,
Female 172) was drawn from target population of 9166 from Public Universities in
coast region of Kenya. Purposive and proportionate random sampling techniques were
used. Pilot study was carried out among 260 similar sampled populations to establish
reliability and validity of the instruments. The instruments of Emotional Intelligence
Scale (EIS), Self-Concealment Scale (SCS), and VCT seeking behavior Scale (VCT
SBS) were used for data collection. Spearman Rank Order correlation co-efficiency
tested the predictive relationships. The test result indicated a statistically significance
positive relationship between the variables; self-concealment and VCT seeking
behavior (r = 0.634 > 0.05), emotional intelligence and VCT seeking behavior (r =0.375
> 0.05) and emotional intelligence and self-concealment (r =0.302> 0.05 Significance
level). The study revealed that self-concealment was a significant determiner in VCT
seeking behavior with a predictive p-value =0.029<0.05 significant level. The above
results implied that, if there would be a decrease in one‟s self-concealment and an
increase in one‟s emotional intelligence, then that response would lead to improvement
in VCT seeking behavior. The study recommended that the role of emotional
intelligence and self-concealment in voluntary counseling practices could be
incorporated in HIV education and counseling to strengthen HIV prevention
programmes in schools because emotional intelligence is a basis for both logical
preparedness and motivation in seeking VCT services while self-concealment is a
psychological construct operating as a predisposition to actively conceal one‟s HIV
status, hence self-concealment and emotional intelligence are key determiners of VCT
seeking behavior.