The statistical moment method has been applied to investigate the temperature effects on the lattice parameters and elastic properties of the zinc-blende CdX (X = S, Se, Te) compounds. The analytical expressions of thermal-induced atomic displacement, lattice constant, elastic moduli (Young’s modulus, bulk modulus and shear modulus) and elastic constants (including C11,C12 and C44) of the zinc-blende compounds have been derived. We have pointed out that the temperature effects on the elastic properties of CdS and CdSe are almost the same. And the elastic quantities of CdS and CdSe are more strongly dependent on temperature than those of CdTe semiconductor. This phenomenon is caused by the weaker coupling force of Cd-Te bonds compared to those of Cd-S and Cd-Se bonds. Furthermore, from the calculated Debye temperatures of CdX (X = S, Se, Te) compounds we conclude that CdS has higher phonon thermal conductivity and is therefore more thermally conductive among the three semiconductor compounds. The calculations of present work can be used as an appropriate reference for the experiments in future.