Purpose : the purpose of the present study was to investigate the assumptions that: 1) parents of obsessive compulsive patients rear their children in a perfectionistic manner and 2) these parents had perfectionistic traits. Method: in this retrospective study, based on DSM-IV diagnostic criteria and psychiatric interview, three groups of obsessive compulsive patients, depressed patients and normal individual, each consisting of 20 subjects, were studied. The latter two groups were control groups. All of the subjects reported their parents’ characteristics and child-rearing style by a questionnaire specifically developed for this purpose. The validity and reliability of this questionnaire were confirmed in a pilot study.

  Results : the results supported the finding of other studies which had confirmed the assumption. In this study, the depressed patients also reported that their parents’ child-rearing style were perfectionistic too.