Young adults living with type 2 diabetes (T2DM, aged 18-39 years) are an under-researched group. They are at increased risk of early development and rapid progression of diabetic retinopathy (DR), a leading cause of vision loss in working age adults.  Risk of DR can be reduced by tight blood glucose and blood pressure management; early stage, asymptomatic DR can be detected with regular retinal screening from diabetes diagnosis.  Once detected, timely treatment can significantly reduce the risk of vision loss.  Despite this, retinal screening rates among this group are lower than population average.  This qualitative study aimed to explore knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, barriers and enablers to retinal screening for young adults with T2DM.  Participants were recruited via the Diabetes Victoria member database. A semi-structured interview guide was developed based on the theoretical domain framework (TDF), a validated technique to categorise psychosocial and other factors influencing target health behaviours.  An online validation activity was conducted to ensure that interview guide items accurately represented TDF domains and behaviour change constructs.  Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted, audio-recorded and transcribed in full.  Data were mapped onto TDF domains and analysed via framework analysis. Ten young adults took part (50% women; age range 29-37.5 years; 50% had not previously had a retinal screen). Those who had not attended retinal screening made greater reference to barriers such as ‘beliefs about capabilities’, ‘social identity’ and ‘environmental context and resources’.  In contrast, ‘social influences’, ‘knowledge (procedural)’ and ‘beliefs about consequences’ (anticipated regret and outcome expectancies) were key enablers for those who had previously sought retinal screening.  Perceptions of diabetes-related stigma were common, as was lack of engagement with existing services, further hampering diabetes education and self-management activities.  The small sample size is indicative of the challenges associated with engaging this cohort.  Despite this limitation, this study is the first to demonstrate qualitatively the psychological, social and environmental factors affecting retinal screening uptake among Australian young adults living with T2DM.  Furthermore, the TDF was established as a suitable foundation for identifying behaviour change domains to be targeted in a tailored intervention to improve retinal screening rates for this group.