The purpose of this research is to study the perceived parent-child communication, empathic ability, and school adjustment of middle school students. This has been done by surveying middle school students of all ages from three selected middle schools located in small to medium-sized cities of Gyeonggi-do, and the results of 566 conducted surveys are as follows. First, open parent-child communication showed significant positive correlation with empathic ability and school adjustment, whereas poor parent-child communication showed significant negative correlation with the aforementioned variables. There was also a significant positive correlation between empathic ability and school adjustment. Second, empathic ability was shown to be a partial mediator in the relationship between parent-child communication and school adjustment. In other words, open communication increased empathic ability and school adjustment, whereas poor communication decreased the two variables. Therefore, it was confirmed that open parent-child communication and positive empathic ability play an important role in school adjustment of adolescents.