<p>Adolescent school burnout is closely linked to academic achievement, while existing researches have remarkably concentrated on unidirectional relationships. This overlooks the dynamic, reciprocal nature of this link over time, as well as the roles of individual resources (e.g., self-esteem) and peer group contexts (e.g., clique academic norms) in developing this relationship, especially in Chinese junior high schools where academic achievement is prioritized. To explore these issues, the present study used two waves of longitudinal data (1 year interval) from 2,481 seventh-grade students (47.5% female; <i>M</i>_age = 13.27, <i>SD</i> = 0.67) across three Chinese junior high schools. Social Cognitive Mapping (SCM) identified 376 peer cliques, with an average clique size of 3.68 ( <i>SD</i> = 2.05). This study constructed a multilevel moderated mediation model, the results revealed three key findings: (1) academic achievement and school burnout were reciprocally predictive, with academic achievement exerting a stronger influence on later school burnout; (2) self-esteem mediated this link, higher academic achievement predicted greater self-esteem, which reduced school burnout; (3) clique academic engagement norms moderated the achievement-self-esteem link, with this relationship being stronger in cliques with high academic engagement norms, while was nonsignificant in low-norm cliques. By addressing limitations of previous cross-sectional studies, the results highlight the importance of peer group context and individual factors in understanding adolescent academic-psychological adaptation.</p>