Family: The Concept of Character Education
Jeje Haryono, Bambang Qomaruzzaman, Ratu Suntiah, Dadan Nurul Haq and Idzam Fautanu
UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung, Jl. AH Nasution 105, Bandung, Indonesia
Keywords: Child Character Development, Family Sociology, Child Psychology.
Abstract: The family has an important role in shaping the character of a child. As the smallest social system, the
family instills moral values in the personality of a child. In times of growth, a child has many questions
about new things. The child has critical questions, and this is where a good communication skill must be
owned by every parent in answering questions asked by a child. Families now have more complex functions
that include both production and consumption functions. This paper aims to provide a view of how the
influence of families on the development of a child's character. In the end, the family has a very important
role in shaping the character of a child.
1 INTRODUCTION
Indonesia is one country that has a very large
population. Its population density in Indonesian
territory is not the same. For example, West Java is
the region with the largest population compared to
other regions. Population growth in West Java is
very fast, and this raises its own problems because
the carrying capacity of natural resources in West
Java is not sufficient to meet the economic needs of
most of its population.
In Indonesia, the development of quality families
is inseparable from the development of prosperous
families and population development based on Law
No. 10 of 1992 on "Development of Population and
Prosperous Family Development". The law explains
that family planning is an effort to increase
awareness and participation of the community
through the maturation of marriage age, birth
arrangement, fostering family resilience and
improving family welfare to realize small happy and
prosperous family. Quality family is prosperous
family, healthy, advanced, independent, ideal
number of children, forward-looking, responsible,
harmonious, devoted to God.
In Law No. 1 of 1974 it states that "Marriage is
the inner bond between a woman and a man as
husband and wife with the aim of forming a happy
and eternal family (household) based on the God"
(Law No. 1 of 1974 article 1). What is meant is the
inner bond here is a bond between a man and a
woman as husband and wife, which is obliged to be
bound in a legitimate marriage bond in each
individual's relationship and witnessed by society. In
Islamic law, legitimate marriage is a strong contract
to obey God's command and worship.
So, basically marriage is a way to justify the
relationship between the two opposite sex. Marriage
is also a way to keep human life alive on earth.
Without regeneration, the human population on this
earth will become extinct (Megawangi, 2004).
Marriage has a deep psychological dimension
because with this marriage both husband and wife
become one. They have each other, keep each other,
need each other, and of course love each other and
love, so that the family becomes harmonious.
Family is a vital component in donating nation
and state development. The family gave birth to
individuals who predicate as citizens of a nation.
With it, the family is an important asset in
supporting the journey of the nation and the State
In a family, a husband and a wife have absolute
power for the process of forming and building a
family. Husbands and wives have such a huge role
that whatever they think, do and express will have a
certain impact on the family (Mulyasa, 2011).
Therefore, they are required to always be the perfect
blend in every attitude, step and speech. Integrating
the various potentials of a husband and wife will be
able to wage a powerful synergy to form and build
and beautify a family building. To achieve these
goals, the husband and wife must be able and have
the interest and heed some things.
326
Haryono, J., Qomaruzzaman, B., Suntiah, R., Haq, D. and Fautanu, I.
Family: The Concept of Character Education.
In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Sociology Education (ICSE 2017) - Volume 1, pages 326-329
ISBN: 978-989-758-316-2
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved

In the time of ignorance, the existence of women
and girls was not recognized; therefore, prostitution
arose. The family system became a blind fanaticism.
At a time when Western civilization dominated, the
family system was also influenced. Islam as a
civilization becomes a reformer. Islam changed all
traditions and replaced them with Islamic law with a
goal of prosperity for the universe (Tafsir, 2015).
The social rules that Islam brings are meant to
save people all over the place. This can happen
because Islamic Sharia is universal and valid
throughout the ages. The Prophet said: "The
marriage is my rule, who does not like my rule so he
does not belong to my class" (H.R. Bukhari).
Qur’an described the function of the creation of
man and woman as well as the essence of a marriage
as follows:
ْﻦِﻣَو ِﻪِﺗَآ ْنَأ َﻖَﻠَﺧ ْﻢُﻜَﻟ ْﻦِﻣ ْﻢُﻜِﺴُﻔْـﻧَأﺎًﺟاَوْزَأاﻮُﻨُﻜْﺴَﺘِﻟﺎَﻬْـﻴَﻟِإ َﻞَﻌَﺟَو ْﻢُﻜَﻨْـﻴَـﺑ ًةﱠدَﻮَﻣ ًﺔَْﲪَرَو ﱠنِإ
ِﰲ َﻚِﻟَذ ٍتَﻵ ٍمْﻮَﻘِﻟ َنوُﺮﱠﻜَﻔَـﺘَـﻳ
"And of His signs is that He created for you from
yourselves mates that you may find tranquility in them;
and He placed between you affection and mercy. Indeed,
in that are signs for a people who give thought. " (QS Ar-
Ruum, 21
Thus in Islam all human beings are equal. They
are created to know one another and to preserve the
kind of human descendants, through a marriage.
Differences of race and gender are the grace of Allah
SWT. With the aqad of marriage bonds, the
relationship between men and women in a family
becomes legitimate. To realize the noble purpose of
marriage and a family, it is necessary to understand
to optimize the function of the family (Tafsir, 2015).
The family is the main base that becomes the
foundation of the community, including in Islamic
community. Thus, the family is entitled to get more
attention and care in the Qur’an. In the Qur'an there
is an explanation for organizing and protecting the
family (Salman, 2013).
2 METHODS
This research procedure uses qualitative approach by
conducting library research. This study aims to
collect data and information from various sources. In
essence the data obtained with this library research
can be used as the basic foundation and the main
tool for the implementation of field research. This
research is also said as a study that discusses the
secondary data. Literature research is a series of
activities related to library data collection methods,
reading, and recording and processing of research
materials.
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The family in shaping the character of the child is
very important, where the Family must try to be the
ideal parent. In addition to being an example of good
morality, parents are expected to have a broad
scientific knowledge and knowledge in terms of
character, ethics and moral education can be viewed
from various other scientific disciplines. In
transferring the value is not only given in the form
of advice / lecture, but how parents create in
providing learning strategies and give example (role
model) to children at home
The importance of character education in the
formation of children's character cannot be separated
from the role of parents as educators who will
change the character of children in the family. Based
on the results of the study, parents transfer
knowledge to their children, also try to provide
education effectively and encourage children to
apply knowledge that have been obtained. In
addition, parents must be assertive in guiding their
students in complying with the rules at home
(Mahmud, 2013). The punishment given to the child
is educational and does not affect the child's mental
and mental. Children should not be too spoiled
because a spoiled child means increasing trust that
he always gets what he wants. Therefore, the family
tries to make children be independent (Supriyanti,
2006).
The results of interviews and observations to
parents show that character education provides a
change of attitude and character in the students, such
as building an honest attitude, promoting awareness
and behaviour in accordance with Islamic teachings,
and fosters the social skills. Based on the above
explanation, the early character education for
children is very necessary. Character education has
an enormous influence in minimizing children's
moral decadence today.
Education is a shared responsibility between
family, community and government, while the
school plays a role in supporting the continuation of
education in the family. The primary education the
child receives is in his family. The role of parents for
the education of children according is to provide
basic education, attitudes and basic skills such as,
religious education, manners, courtesy, aesthetics,
compassion, sense of security, and the basics to
comply with the rules.
Family: The Concept of Character Education
327

3.1 Character Building of Children in
the Family
The basic task of child development is to develop a
correct understanding of how the world works. In
other words, the main task of a child in its
development is to learn the "rules of the game" all
aspects of the world. There are various parenting
patterns that can affect the children’s creativity, such
as the physical environment, internal and external
social environment of education. Children's internal
needs include getting help from parents to develop
their potential. The results show that when parents
play a role in education, the child will show
improvement in learning achievement, followed by
improvement of attitude, socio-emotional stability,
discipline, and aspirations of children to learn to the
highest level, and will even help the child to get
work and to build a family (Koesoma A, 2007).
3.2 Family as the Main Media of
Education
The sociologists believe that the family has an
important role in determining the progress of a
nation, so they theorize that the family is a very
important unit in society. Sociologists believe that
all kinds of public depravity are the result of weak
family institutions. For a child, the family is the first
place and especially for the growth and
development. According to UN General Assembly
resolution, the main function of the family is as a
vehicle to educate, nurture and socialize children,
develop the ability of all its members in order to
perform its functions in the community well, and, to
provide satisfaction and a healthy environment in
order to achieve prosperous family. The family is the
earliest and most effective place to run the functions
of the health department, education and welfare. If
the family fails to teach the truth, the spirit, the
desire to be the best, and master the basic abilities, it
will be very difficult for other institutions to correct
their failures. Because the failure of the family in
shaping the character of the child will result in the
growth of people with bad character or not character.
Therefore, every family must have awareness that
the character of the nation is very dependent on the
education of the child's character at home
(Muhaimin, 2001).
3.3 Parenting Patterns Determine the
Success of Children's Education in
the Family
The success of the family in instilling the values of
the policy in the child is very dependent on the type
of parenting applied by the parents to the child.
Parenting can be defined as the pattern of interaction
between children and parents that includes the
fulfillment of physical needs and psychological
needs, and norms prevailing in the community so
that children can live in harmony with the
environment. Some examples of parenting are:
3.3.1 Authoritarian Parenting
It is characterized by parents’ domination over
children. The child is not recognized as a person, the
control of the child's behavior is very strict, the
parents punish disobedient children.
3.3.2 Democratic Parenting
This pattern emphasizes cooperation between
parent-child, child is recognized as personal, there
guidance and direction from parent, parent control is
not rigid.
3.3.3 Permissive Parenting Pattern
This pattern has characteristics of the child's
dominance, loose attitude or freedom from parents,
less control and attention of parents. Through
parenting the child will learn a lot of things,
including characters. This means that the type of
parenting set by parents to their children determine
the success of character education by the family
(Atabik, 2015).
3.3.4 Family Mistakes in Educating
Children Affect the Development of
Children's Emotional Intelligence
Some parents' mistakes in parenting will result in
failure in shaping good character and affecting the
child's emotional intelligence. Some of them are
parents show less expression of affection both
verbally and physically, spend less time for children,
parents are verbally abusive, for example,
insinuating children, shrinking children and saying
harsh words; being physically abusive, such as
hitting, pinching or punishing other bodies. In
addition, parents overly force children to master
cognitive abilities early and parents do not instill
good character in children.
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The impact of improper parenting above will
lead to a child with a troubled personality or low
emotional outburst, such as: The child becomes
indifferent, does not accept friendship, disbelief in
others, is emotionally unresponsive, behaves
aggressively, becomes inferior, always negative,
unstable emotion, and emotional and intellectual
unbalanced.
4 CONCLUSIONS
Early childhood education is very important in
shaping the character of the child. If all parents
understand the importance of the education, the
children are familiar with the things that they should
do. They are in carrying out their responsibilities to
fellow human beings as a form of personal needs.
Early childhood education is not just a function
to provide a learning experience to children, but
more importantly to optimize brain development. It
can take place anywhere and anytime just as human
interactions that can take place within the family,
peers, and from community relationships (Ahsani,
2014).
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