Objective: To compare the perceptions of youth in grades 5 to 9 and parents regarding their household environment relevant to smoking socialization.

Methods: We conducted secondary analysis of the 2004/05 Canadian Youth Smoking Survey and corresponding parent survey, and used the McNemar Test to compare youth and parent responses.

Results: Results showed statistically significant patterns of disagreement between youth and parent responses at most levels of youth smoking uptake regarding parental smoking, household rules around smoking, and smoking in the home and vehicles. When youth and parents disagreed, the following patterns emerged: non-susceptible, non-smoking youth perceived their parents as non-smokers and youth with more smoking experience perceived their parents as smokers; youth at all levels of smoking uptake perceived fewer rules in the home than parents indicated, more smoking in the home than parents indicated, and exposure to smoking in vehicles in contrast to vehicle smoking bans indicated by parents.

Conclusion: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to compare the perceptions of youth and parents regarding household variables related to the socialization of tobacco use. The discrepancies between youth and parent responses suggest that there is room to improve on establishing household environments that clearly condemn the use of tobacco, which may affect youth susceptibility to future smoking.