The purpose of this study was to examine the moderating effects of parent-adolescent communication
style on the relationship of life-event stress and adolescents’ suicidal ideation. The life-event stress was
classified into household stress, study stress and teacher stress. The parent-adolescent communication styles
were classified into open and closed style, respectively, of father and mother. Total 707 students (301
middle school, 229 academic high school, and 177 technological high school students) were surveyed with
suicidal ideation scale, life-event stress scale, and parent-adolescent communication style scale. Regression
analysis revealed that all the three types of life-event stress were statistically significant. But the effects of
the adolescent-parent communication styles varied according to the school types. With the middle and
academic high school students, the open and closed communication style had effects on the suicidal
ideation of adolescents. On the contrary, with the technological high school students, only the open
communication styles of father and mother had such effects. The suicidal ideation of middle schoolers was
moderated by the communication styles of their parents. Implications and limitations of this study, and
direction for the future research were discussed.