Objective: To investigate the relationship between violence exposure and depression in adolescents, and to explore possible moderating effects of emotional balance, so as to provide the evidence reference for understanding the status and characteristics of adolescents violence exposure. Methods: A total of 2 506 middle school students from three middle schools in Ganzhou selected by convenient cluster random sampling. Violence Exposure Scale(VES), Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale(CES-D) and Emotional Balance Scale were used for questionnaire survey. Results: There were statistically significant differences in the scores of violence exposure among middle school students of different genders, grades, whether the only child or not, father educational level,mother s educational level and family types ( t/F =3.85, 21.14, 2.90, 7.62, 8.13 ,8.12, P < 0.01 ). There were statistically significant differences in the scores of depression among middle school students of different genders, grades and family types ( t/F =-7.05, 18.61,7.42, P <0.01 ). There were statistically significant differences in the scores of emotional balance among middle school students of different genders, grades, father s educational level and mother s educational level ( t/F =7.93, 9.22, 7.71 ,6.86, P <0.01 ) . Emotional balance was positively related to the depressive mood of middle school students ( r =0.34, P < 0.01 )，and emotional balance was negatively related to depression( r =-0.20, P <0.01). Emotional balance had the moderating effect on violence exposure and depression among middle school students ( t =-3.35, β =-0.02, P <0.01). Conclusion Violence exposure is related to depression of middle school students. Improving the emotional balance ability of adolescents can effectively reduce the negative effects of violent exposure on early adolescent depression, and reduce the incidence of adolescent depression.