Drought is one of the important factors limiting the growth and development of sunflowers. To investigate the molecular mechanism of drought resistance in sunflower seedlings, in this study, we used 150 F₇ recombinant selfincompatible line populations constructed by crossing K55 and K58 as materials, and phenotypically determined the relative leaf conductivity, chlorophyll content, leaf area, relative leaf water content, and root length under two water treatment conditions of normal watering and drought stress. With the previous established genetic linkage maps of SNP and SSR markers we located five droughtrelated traits by the composite interval mapping method. The results showed that: (1) a total of 11 QTL loci were localized, 5 under normal irrigation conditions and 6 under drought stress conditions, with phenotypic contributions ranging from 0.768% to 7.547%. 3 QTL loci were localized on Chr. 5, with the most loci. (2) 62 droughtrelated candidate genes were screened within the QTL confidence interval, including rna23019, rna23004, rna22661, rna22193, rna23294, rna22783 on qLA81 and rna40140 on qCC131, which can be used as subsequent gene cloning and functional analysis. This study lays the foundation for drought resistance research and its genetic improvement in sunflowers.