Title : Managing parental expectations of acne vulgaris and atopic dermatitis in pediatric and adolescent dermatology
Abstract:
Parents often accompany pre-teen/adolescent children aged 12-17 for dermatology visits regarding acne vulgaris and atopic dermatitis. Oftentimes, parents will voice their concerns regarding their child’s skin condition and the same concern is not reflected when the child is asked for their own thoughts. Some parents will be quick to ask for additional treatments and pharmacological agents to treat their child’s condition due to the distress and frustration the skin condition causes the parent, while the adolescent may be less inclined to aggressively treat their acne or eczema. Many adolescents may feel shy and insecure about any skin blemishes, and parental concerns can sometimes escalate these feelings or insecurities. While most dermatologists will try to find a compromise between what both the parent and adolescent are requesting in terms of treatment modalities, there remains an additional challenge of managing parental expectations when their child’s skin does not reflect the progress they had hoped to achieve since their last visit. This paper discusses ways to manage realistic expectations with the parent, in addition to the patient, in order to reduce parental comments causing self-consciousness and low self-esteem that may be associated with the chronicity of acne vulgaris and atopic dermatitis.
