Many adolescents live with a visible difference that affects their lives in profound ways, but studies investigating parents’ perceptions of raising appearance issues during conversations with their adolescent are lacking. As part of a larger study exploring the effectiveness of a web-based intervention (YP Face IT), semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 parents of adolescents with a visible difference. Thematic analysis revealed four overarching themes: (1) Conversational settings; (2) Understanding adolescents’ feelings and thoughts; (3) Providing parental guidance and encouragement; and (4) When the dialogue becomes difficult. Results showed that parents resorted to specific settings when instigating conversations about appearance, such as when their adolescents expressed a need for emotional care, were perceived to be upset, or whilst managing their condition. The choice of setting was also important as some parents generally felt uncomfortable raising appearance issues with their adolescent, for fear of fueling appearance concerns. Results further suggest that open communication can enable parents to stay informed about their adolescent’s psychosocial adjustment to a visible difference. These results stress the need to make available support to facilitate open communication about appearance-related topics between parents and adolescents.

许多青少年生活在明显的差异中，这会以深刻的方式影响他们的生活，但缺乏调查父母在与青少年交谈时提出外表问题的看法的研究。作为探索基于网络的干预 (YP Face IT) 有效性的大型研究的一部分，对 18 名存在明显差异的青少年父母进行了半结构化访谈。主题分析揭示了四个总体主题：(1) 会话设置；(2)了解青少年的感受和想法；（三）提供家长指导和鼓励；和（4）当对话变得困难. 结果表明，父母在发起关于外表的对话时会诉诸特定的环境，例如当他们的青少年表达需要情感关怀、被认为心烦意乱或在管理他们的病情时。环境的选择也很重要，因为一些父母通常对向青少年提出外表问题感到不舒服，因为害怕加剧外表问题。结果进一步表明，开放式沟通可以让父母随时了解青少年对明显差异的心理社会调整。这些结果强调需要提供可用的支持，以促进父母和青少年之间关于外表相关话题的公开交流。