Social Problems and Family Education Role to Build Family

Resilience

Viena Rusmiati Hasanah and Yoyoh Jubaedah

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Jl. Dr. Setiabudhi No. 229, Bandung, Indonesia

viena@upi.edu

Keywords: Family Resilience, Social Problems, Family Education.

Abstract: Family is the smallest social unit in the society. It plays a significant role in building a nation. Family is the

first education institution and is crucial for every individual within it as also mentioned in *Tricentra

Pendidikan Ki Hajar Dewantara (Three philosophies of Education of Ki Hajar Dewantara). Many

challenges are faced by families as resulted from globalization. This study aims to find out social problems

and challenges faced by societies, how family education plays its role to build family resilience. This

research uses qualitative approach with descriptive method. Data collection using document studies, and

discussion forums through the media WhatsApp on the family activist group (GiGa) Indonesia. The results

of this study indicate that social problems such as juvenile delinquency, sexual violence, drug abuse,

addiction of online games and pornography addiction, high rates of divorce and other social problems that

occur in Indonesia become part of the concept of family resilience so it is necessary efforts to strengthen

family education in building family resilience.

1 INTRODUCTION

Globalization means no boundaries among nations

both in terms of time and place. No boundaries also

give challenge, whether we are ready to receive

rapid flows of information. The increasing of social

problems has caused fear for family as the first and

crucial institution for every human. Has family still

become the main pillar in building human? Why are

there so many social problems related to the

character of the nation and even right now there are

problems related to the existence of this institution.

Where is the function and role of family? Is it

important for family to be resilient?

The concept of family resilience has the

definition that the family is a functional system

useful to provide defence in the face of life

challenges that always appear and strengthen in line

with the development that occurred. This functional

system is influenced by highly diverse social events

and contexts and in turn can facilitate positive

adaptation of all members and strengthen the family

unit. A map of information about the key processes

in family resilience lies in the synergism of the

transactional processes within their family and social

environment (Walsh, 2016). Resilience is usually

defined as the ability to achieve positive results

regardless of the level and type of different threats in

one's life (Masten, 2001). Threats from within and

outside individuals and families need to be dealt

with in the best possible manner. Social problems

occur as a result of the inability of individuals and

families to resist threats with the best attitude. The

family has a major role as a qualified individual

builder institution (one of which is a characteristic

component), which then becomes the foundation of

a civil society builder and further becomes the

foundation of a characterized nation (Sunarti, 2017).

This paper would like to reveal on matters

related to various conditions of social problems that

occur and the role of family education to build a

resilient family. The study is conducted in order to

answer the following research questions.

 What are those social problems and challenges

emerged at the present state in Indonesia?

 How does Family education play its role to

build family resilience?

306

Hasanah, V. and Jubaedah, Y.

Social Problems and Family Education Role to Build Family Resilience.

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Sociology Education (ICSE 2017) - Volume 1, pages 306-310

ISBN: 978-989-758-316-2

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Social Problems

Social problems are all types of behavior that violate

customs of society. It also refers to a social situation

that is disturbing, forceful, dangerous and put people

in adversity (Lemert, E. M., 1951; Kartono, 2005).

Basically, social problems constitute structural

functions of all social systems in the form of

unexpected products or consequences from one

sociocultural system. Sociologists state that social

problems are resulted from maladjusted behavior

(not to be able to adjust oneself) and therefore

general societies cannot accept it. Further, this type

of behavior is also against social norms.

Behavior deviation can be divided into three

groups, namely 1) individual deviation, refers to

personal symptom deviation, private and individual

attributed to anomalies (deviation from laws and

disorders), biological variations, psychological

abnormalities since birth; 2) situational deviation is

caused likely by situational/ social power outside of

the individual him/herself, for example stealing

because of poverty, becoming a prostitute because of

dissatisfaction with previous jobs; the money could

not meet his/ her wants, and students involving in

school fights, and etc. Situational deviation

accumulates when cultural conflict occurs. Cultural

conflict is defined as a social situation filled with

social groups that are in dispute and pressure groups.

Some examples include corruption culture,

teenagers’ rebel, adolescent revolt, sexual deviation,

LGBT; 3) Systemic deviation is when all deviated

thoughts and deeds are rationalized and righted by

all those members who have deviate behavior. Those

deviate groups generally have unique pattern

organization, with ethical codes, norms and strange

habits to uphold their prides and social statuses.

Some examples shown these types organizations are

labor unions, mafia gangs, drug smugglers, LGBT

groups, robbers, and so on (Lemert, E. M., 1951;

Kartono, 2005).

2.2 Family Education

Family is the smallest social unit in the society

undergoing changes both internally (in the family)

and externally (outside of the family) (Sunarti,

2014). As the smallest social unit in the society,

family has become one of the pillars to run

important functions and role in social life widely.

Family has tasks and functions for internal and

external surroundings. Functions and roles of family,

according to Department of National Family

Planning Coordination, among others are; religious,

social cultural, love and care, protection,

reproduction, socialization and education, economy,

environment fostering functions. Family has basic,

development, and crises tasks that should be

conducted successfully in order to attain welfare and

happiness.

In relation to education, family is the first

institution for each individual to know in his or her

life cycle. It is through the family that most

individuals get to know about the world, and so

according to Jones and Wilkins, the first children’s

socialization takes place in their families and thus,

parents are first and important social agent

(Sudiapermana, 2012). Those aspects strengthen the

existence of family education’s term since it is

actually difficult to separate education and family.

Interaction among family members will highly be

influenced by education elements, in line with the

tasks and functions of family in order to attain

family welfare.

2.3 Family Resilience

A family is considered resilient when it is able to

fulfill its roles, functions, and tasks. Further details

on family resilience can be seen in the following

characteristics (Lee, 2003; Sunarti, 2017).

 Physical-economic resilience refers to an

ability to fulfil objective welfare in the forms

of the fulfilment of basic needs including

food, clothes, houses, education, and health;

 Social resilience is an implementation from

religion orientation, value, and goals of family

making, it is an ability to manage nonphysical

resources and social relation;

 Psychological resilience refers to an ability to

manage, mature personalities, satisfaction

with needs or subjective welfare.

Family resilience is reflected in some abilities to

anticipate, predict, prevent vulnerability and risks to

prevent from crises, and when undergoing misery

and adversity, a family is able to get up and recover

and even more powerful (Sunarti, 2017; Oh and Sun

2014). All those features are known as family

resilience, and as a specific resilience when a family

can access assets that can be used to protect when

needed and to face hardship or disorganization.

Duvall, an expert in family development, since 1957

has illustrated what constitutes vulnerability that can

be predicted during the whole life of family, among

others are economy, and when women are working,

Social Problems and Family Education Role to Build Family Resilience

307

conflict between work-family, and the unbalanced

task among family members (Sunarti, 2017).

3 METHODOLOGY

This paper conducts studies on social issues through

literature and documentation studies and

participatory discussions through family activist

forum (GiGa) forum through WhatsApp media.

Participatory discussions were conducted by 5

persons’ active group members discussing social and

family issues. Various data collected from the

discussion, literature study and document, then

analyzed using qualitative analysis, based on the

topic then determined the categories that connect

each topic discussed so that the pattern builds.

4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Conflicts between culture and the flow of

globalization cannot be avoided and it has been a

rhetoric existed in many kinds of social conditions

occurred recently.

Many kinds of social problems and deviations

occurred recently in Indonesia are associated with

nation’s characters that have been faded and unclear.

Spirit of mental revolution that has been sounded in

the program of “Presiden Jokowi dengan Nawa

Cita-Citanya” still left us some questions; what does

it look like and where does it head to. Some studies

regarding the social cases and phenomena occurred

will be analyzed and are then related to the functions

and tasks of family as the smallest unit in the

society, to be then confirmed by using the concept of

family resilience used as guidance to attain family

welfare.

4.1 Existing Social Issues and

Challenges

Based on the results of the participatory discussions

in the group WhatsApp the Indonesian Family

Activist group (GiGa) Indonesia, it was revealed

about the cases that occurred around, among them

on the topic: Respondent 1: Wow ... this case ... "A

man, zoya, burned alive by the masses "....

Respondent 2: How can?... the public have the heart

to let humans be burned alive ... where does it feel?

Respondent 3: This nation has lost its identity. You

have the heart to let God's creature die in that way ...

even if he is guilty. Respondent 4: In this info ... it

was just suspected yes ... not necessarily wrong. Pity

his wife ... Zoya burned alive just because allegedly

stealing amplifiers from mushala al hidayah hurip

jaya village babelan district of Bekasi, West Java.

(Tribunnews, 2017). Respondent 5: how this nation?

... issue of LGBT is now increasingly crowded.

There is news about Miss Transgender Sumedang

make a scene (Sumedang Ekspress, 2017).

Respondent 2: This social issue shows our nation

losing its character. Respondent 1: Agree ... must

start from the family. every parent and individual

cares for members of his family

Based on policy of the Ministry of Women

Empowerment and Children Protection of Republic

of Indonesia, there are some social phenomena and

cases happened lately in Indonesia as can be seen

below.

 From Year 2010 until 2014, women workers

as professional have kept increasing from

44.02% in 2010 and 45.61% in 2014;

 Cases on children abuse also get increasing

from 2178 cases in 2011 until 5066 cases in

2014;

 The number of cases on violence to women in

Indonesia reaches 293.220 cases (based on the

record);

 Data taken from twitter explain that cases on

prostitution, sexual crime and pornography

have been increasing until 2014;

 Level of divorce in Indonesia, according to the

data in 2016, reaches 1000 divorces on

average per day.

Cases reported by media are as follows:

 Sexual abuse to a kindergarten student in

Bogor, school still employs the suspect (The

Asianparent Indonesia, 2017);

 Sensational news about a sexy belly dancer in

the book launching of former deputy of BI

Governor (JawaPos, 2017);

 Being addicted to watching porn movies,

three boys have sex with sheep. It happened

in Karawang West Java (News Republika,

2017).

Many existing social problems are forms of

deviation, likely resulted from internal and external

factors of individuals. These may rather be related to

cultural lag than individual deviation. It is because

societies are not ready to face all changes resulted

from globalization. It is certainly a serious challenge

for all Indonesians. Situational deviation, at the

present state, is actually really heart-breaking. It

includes such as porno actions among teenagers,

divorce, moral poverty leading to individual and

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group crimes, fights between schools, misuse of

narcotics, psychotropic, and other addictive drugs,

sexual violence, homosexual, lesbian, gay, human

burnt a group of society and so on.

This type of situational deviation needs a serious

handling and can result in systemic deviation. Even

so, in some cases, the symptoms have been

appearing and leading to systemic deviation, such as

LGBT group who demand for same-sex marriage to

be legalized in Indonesia, mafia gangs dealing with

drugs have conquered all important lines in

Indonesia that it can penetrate educated levels,

campuses, actresses and professionals. This

condition is really heart-breaking and therefore a

systemic movement needs to be formed in order to

prevent and solve social problems and characters

problems of this nation.

4.2 Roles and Functions of Family

Education to build Family

Resilience

Function of education and socialization is one of

activities needs to be conducted in family level to all

family members. The theory of ecology of

Bronfenbrenner explains that every individual is

under other social system around him or her.

Therefore, it is certain that it forms a microsystem, a

family particularly parents and close relatives have

the biggest influence in providing education function

and socialization. This opportunity is not used by

parents due to many conditions.

Family is supposed to be a social unit that can

influence its surroundings. What happens is on the

contrary that external neighborhood has influenced

family. Other than that are mass media, social

media, and gadget in which in the theory of ecology,

the position of those are in the macro system.

However, because their interests and sophisticated

characteristics, those aspects have become the

closest one to every individual, from the early age

children to senior citizens.

We need to realize these phenomena and

conditions since we are parts of this country and

have responsibilities to ourselves and societies. It is

of course easy to say that family is supposed to be

the main pillar to give education in family level in

order to cleverly act on existing flow of

globalization and challenges. However, the huge

challenges that exist, sometimes has made the family

institution no longer important. Needs level of each

individual and other family member have sometimes

become no longer important. Making a long distant

to become a close one because of electronic media,

has caused meeting and networking have no

meaning. Interactions between husband and wife,

children and parents, seem no longer meaningful

when everything can be done by the touch of the

fingers. Entertainment and physical health recreation

that may involve other family members are no

longer interesting because of other more attractive

entertainments through TV or wireless network that

has been famous in the world and is sophisticated.

Those pressure and different kinds of

encouragement if not anticipated, can make family

lose direction in running functions and tasks. If the

smallest unit in the society such as family has

become less important and less appreciated, it is

very hard for us to appreciate bigger institutions. If

children no longer want to hear their parents and

their parents are no longer care for their children, or

even husband and wife do not know each other, it is

impossible to build a nation. This discussion

concludes that family institution needs to be

strengthened by multi directions, approaches and

targets.

4.3 Building Family Resilience

Family resilience is defined as a family ability to

manage resources and problems faced in order to

attain family goals, which is a qualified and

prosperous life (Masten, 2001). Further, a resilient

family has an ability to anticipate, predict, and

prevent susceptibility and risks to prevent from

crises and when undergoing misery and adversity,

then family is able to get up and recover and even

more empowered (Sunarti, 2017). Paying attention

to the above conditions with all different kinds of

social problems occurred lately, family is expected

to be able to become one of the pillars that are able

to defend from the outside attacks and from those

swallow anyone who is not ready in the era of

globalization. Many strategies are carried out to

carry out a resilient family, done by the principle of

velocity, through innovative breakthrough and have

a great leverage power (Sunarti, 2017). Many efforts

are done by many families by, for example, fostering

a family room spiritually and emotionally and by

being able to be independent and by having

economic stability. (ACTNews Bogor, 2017).

Approaches to realize those efforts are done through

many lines and are organized well to get together to

build societies’ welfare through the building of

family resilience. Many lines including policies,

direct programs to society through areas in the level

of city, sub district and village. Apart from that, the

movement should be done through advocacy and

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implementation of program in the level of

educational units in all types of educations,

including formal, nonformal, and informal. It is also

done in the levels of elementary, secondary and

higher and tertiary education and with collaborations

with different kinds of institutions, not only

governments, privates, and business and industry

worlds to start paying attention to the movement of

building a better family.

5 CONCLUSIONS

Social problems have become the parasite for the

country to move forward and become a prosperous

country since a developed country is determined by

good human resources. Abundant human resources

are not as important as strong and characterized

human characters. Efforts to maintain and handle

many problems should be started from family

institution as the smallest social unit in order to run

its functions and tasks as expected. It implies that a

new and precise strategy needs to be developed in

order to build family resilience in an organized way

using fast, precise, innovative principles and with

optimal leverage power so that social problems can

be solved.

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