Suicide and its thoughts are presently more global than ever. Most worrisomely is that cases of suicide and its thoughts have been predominantly observed among the productive age of the society, whom most often conceal suicidal thoughts until it is executed. It is against this backdrop that this study adopted a cross-sectional design to investigate the mediating role of self-concealment on the relationship between psychological flexibility and suicidal ideation among adults. Participants were 382 adults comprising 57.9% (n=221) males and 42.1% (n=161) females drawn from a South-eastern Nigerian University. Random probability sampling technique was used to draw the sample. Their age ranged from 18-42 years (M =22.61, SD = 3.18). Participants were administered Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (AAQ-II), the Affective Style Questionnaire (ASQ) and Suicidal Ideation Scale (SIS). Three hypotheses were tested and data analyzed using hierarchical multiple regression analysis and Hayes Process mediation analysis. Results revealed that psychological flexibility negatively predicted suicidal ideation (β =-.13, t = -2.54, p<.05), self-concealment predicted suicidal ideation (β =.20, t =3.81, p<.001) and result also showed that self-concealment mediated the link between psychological flexibility and suicidal ideation (.06 indirect effect, CI = .02, .07). Findings underscore the need for adults not to hide distressful experiential life events to relations, friends and well wishers who may possibly help them understand and appreciate alternative ways of handling events in life.

Keywords: Self-concealment, Psychological flexibility, Suicidal ideation, Adults