Objective To have knowledge about the level of self-esteem in middle school students and its relationship with depression.Method A survey of 516middle school students was conducted using two-dimensional self-liking/self-competence scale revised version（SLCS-R）and children’s depression inventory（CDI）. Results Overall level of self-esteem in middle school students showed normal distribution and Z value in K-S test was 1.06（p>0.05）;differences in the overall self-esteem level of boys and girls were statistically significant（t=3.35

p<0.01）;differences of overall self-esteem level in students from different grades were statistically significant（F=4.73

p<0.01）;self-esteem level had a remarkably negative correlation with depression（r=0.49

p<0.01）.Conclusion Level of self-esteem in boys is obviously higher than girls;self-esteem level of students from Grade one students is obviously lower than that from other grades;depression level was correlated with self-esteem.Thus improving the self-esteem level of middle school students is to the benefit of preventing depression symptoms

which is of great significance in improving middle school students’ mental health level.