The impact of human activities on the ecological environment is mainly manifested in the change of land use patterns. The spatio-temporal pattern evolution of habitat quality under the influence of land use changes is of great significance to optimize the regional land ecological layout. Using DEM data, meteorological data, socio-economic data and land use data in 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010, 2018, the spatio-temporal evolution characteristics of habitat quality in the continental coastal zone of the East China Sea were evaluated, described and analyzed through InVEST model, landscape pattern index, and the geographical detector. The results indicate that:(1) the land area of the East China Sea continental coastal zone increased from 1980 to 2018. The forest land accounted for the largest proportion of land use, while the area of farmland and built-up land had the most obvious change. The most prominent land use conversion was in 2000-2010. The land use change in the northern was greater than that in the southern and the eastern was greater than that in the western. (2) The average value of habitat quality from 1980 to 2018 was 0.75, and the overall habitat quality was relatively good, but it showed a downward trend. The decline of habitat quality was the most obvious from 2000 to 2010, and the decline rate slowed down after 2010. Habitat quality patches tend to be fragmented, diversified and uniform. (3) Habitat quality generally declined from the coast to the inland. Affected by shoreline nature and reclamation, the habitat quality in the northern degraded from land to sea, and in the southern degraded from coast to land. Areas with low habitat quality presented a point-surface-zone expansion trend. (4) Bulid-up land index, elevation, night light index, soil type and slope were the main factors affecting habitat quality distribution, and the dominant factors changed from elevation to bulid-up index in 38 years. The natural factors determined the cascade distribution pattern of the habitat quality, and the location and intensity of human activities promoted the evolution of habitat quality.