Objectives: This paper examines the mediation effect of depression in the relationship between parental abuse, parental alcoholism, and suicidal ideation in university students. Methods: A survey on abusive experience from parents, parental alcoholism, depression, and suicidal ideation was conducted with 415 students from six universities. Structural equation analysis was performed using the AMOS program. Results: The result demonstrates that depression has some mediation effects between parental abuse and suicidal ideation in university students. Meanwhile, depression has an entire mediation effect between parental alcoholism and suicidal ideation. Conclusions: This study shows that the parental alcoholism by itself did not affect suicidal ideation in university students, but depression did. Experience of parental abuse is a significant risk factor which may cause suicidal ideation, and depression may cause suicidal ideation indirectly. It calls for efforts to prevent parental abuse and emphasizes the necessity of paying primary attention to the mediation effect of depression in preventing suicidal ideation.