Objective To explore the mediating effect of self-esteem between life events and school adjustment in senior high school students， so as to provide empirical basis for improving their school adjustment. Methods A total of 1 192 senior 1 and senior 2 students from two senior high schools in Jinan in Shandong Province were selected in November 2019 as research objects by the convenient sampling method. Questionnaire of School Adjustment for High School Students（ QSAHSS）， Self-esteem Scale for High School Students and Multidimensional Life Events Rating Questionnaire for Middle School Students were used. Pearson correlation analysis was used to explore the relationship between self-esteem， life events and school adjustment. SPSS 24.0 and model 4 in Process v3.3 were used to test the mediating effect. Results The QSAHSS score of boys was higher than that of girls［ （238.04±22.76） points vs（ 235.01±20.38） points］， and the QSAHSS score of key senior high school students was higher than that of ordinary high school students［ （237.98±20.51） points vs （234.05±23.23） points］. The differences were statistically significant（ t=2.42， P ＜ 0.05）； There was no statistically significant difference in the school adjustment between senior 1 and senior 2［ （237.30±20.24） points vs （235.59±23.15） points； t=1.358， P ＞ 0.05］. The correlation analysis results showed that life events had a statistically significant negative correlations with self-esteem and school adjustment（ r=-0.41， r=-0.19， P ＜ 0.05）， and self-esteem had a statistically significant positive correlation with school adjustment（ r=0.16， P ＜ 0.05）. High school students' self-esteem played a partial mediating role between life events and school adjustment， and the mediating effect accounted for 24.73% of the total effect. Conclusions High school students' self-esteem plays a partial mediating role between life events and school adjustment. In the process of education， improving the self-esteem of high school students can be an effective way to promote their school adjustment