In coastal forest ecosystems, tree dwarfing is a common phenomenon, mainly characterized by height reduction. Clarifying the response mechanism of coastal vegetation to the stress of coastal habitat that results in tree dwarfing is the key to the protection and restoration of coastal vegetation. This paper integrates the existing studies on dwarfing in coastal forest ecosystem, and summarizes the research progress on the relationship between the dwarfing phenomenon and various ecological stresses in coastal areas and the mechanism from the perspective of dwarfing morphology and physiological response mechanism. The coastal trees were subjected to the mechanical pressure of long-term coastal wind and extreme storm, showing the characteristics of thick stem and low height in morphology. The poor coastal soil condition, special salt stress, and compound water stress, however, lead to the decrease of height of trees, but also reduce the growth of base diameter and diameter at breast height, showing the character of thin, which is different from the phenomenon of tree dwarfing in non-zonal mountainous driven by non-zonal wind stress and dwarf forests driven by zonal water, temperature conditions and elevation gradients. Tree dwarfing is also affected by the environmental factors such as frequent coastal fires, extreme light exposure or light stress due to high canopy density in the forest. The dwarfing of individual trees is finally manifested in the dwarfing of the tree layer in the coastal vegetation community. It is undeniable that the phenomenon of coastal tree dwarfing is formed by the interaction of various factors and these environmental stress factors also interact with each other, but so far, the academic community has not reached a conclusion on the key environmental driving force of coastal tree dwarfing and the discussion of this topic is still in the early stage. While pointing out the shortcomings of existing research, it is proposed that more attention should be paid to the multi-factor driving model of coastal forest dwarfing under global change in future research. For example, as a quantitative analysis tool that is different from the traditional systematic review, meta-analysis under this topic may provide some reference for the exploration of the quantitative morphological characteristics and the dominant driving force of coastal tree dwarfing phenomenon by integrating and analyzing the existing studies on stress-plant responses in coastal areas. Based on the current vegetation classification system, the idea of dividing coastal dwarfing forest into new vegetation types is proposed, which provides a reference for the protection, restoration, and classification of coastal plants and vegetation.