Objective To explore the differences of self-esteem in schizophrenic patients at different disease stages. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted in 90 patients with schizophrenia at different stages from August 2017 to December 2019， 30 patients in prodromal， acute and remission groups respectively. Rosenberg self-esteem scale （RSES） was applied to assess subjects' self-esteem. The severity of symptoms at different stages of schizophrenia was assessed using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale （PANSS） and the Calgary Depression Scale for Schizophrenia （CDSS）. The differences of self-esteem in schizophrenic patients at different disease stages were compared， and the influencing factors were analyzed. Results Total scores of RSES in prodromal phase group， acute phase group， remission phase group were （22.7±1.8）， （23.8±2.0）， （23.3±1.3） respectively， the differences among the three groups were statistically significant （F=3.11， P=0.049）. There was no statistical significant in the difference between acute group and remission group. The scores of acute and remission group were higher than those of the prodromal group. The differences in positive factor scores （F=10.38， P＜ 0.001） and negative factor scores （F=6.95， P=0.002） among the three groups were statistically significant. The results of pairwise comparison showed that the mean difference of the total score of RSES between prodromal group and acute group was 1.1 （95%CI：-2.0-0.1）. The mean difference of positive factors between prodromal group and acute group was 1.9 （95%CI：-3.0-0.7）. There were significant differences in the total scores and factor scores of CDSS and PANSS scales in patients with schizophrenia at different stages （F=6.96-95.43， P ＜ 0.05）. Univariate linear regression analysis showed that there were significant differences in positive factor scores （B=1.07， P=0.001） and negative factor scores （B=0.76， P=0.002） among the three groups. After controlling the covariates such as age， gender， course of disease， marriage， occupation， relationship with parents and childhood life evaluation， multivariate regression analysis showed that positive factor scores and negative factor scores were statistically correlated with patients in different disease stages （P＜ 0.05）. Conclusions The general self-esteem level of patients in prodromal phase of schizophrenia was lower than that of patients in acute phase and remission phase， the negative self-esteem level was higher than that of patients in acute phase and remission phase， and the positive self-esteem level was lower than that of patients in acute phase and remission phase.