The cultivation of moral virtues, understood as the enduring embodiment of desirable ethical qualities in the form of character, cannot be achieved solely through the transmission of moral knowledge. Therefore, the present study aimed to explore parents’ perceptions of ethical parenting based on the foundations and principles of character education grounded in Islamic ontology. To achieve this objective, the study was conducted within the framework of Grounded Theory methodology, through which ethical parenting practices were identified based on families’ lived experiences in relation to the concept of character education.
The study population consisted of 20 parents of children in middle childhood (boys and girls aged 7–12 years), who were selected through purposive and convenience sampling in order to develop the educational components of an ethical parenting model. The findings regarding parents’ perceptions of the ethical parenting process indicated that ethical parenting constitutes a set of goals and strategies through which moral character traits become internalized in children by fostering moral cognition, moral emotions, and the will to perform ethical actions. Furthermore, two facilitating factors were identified in this process: the establishment of family and social relationships grounded in ethical values, and an effective parenting style reflected in the dimensions of constructive communication and developmental discipline. These findings can provide a foundation for promoting public discourse and broad educational initiatives concerning developmental parenting styles aimed at character-based moral upbringing. Such applications may be implemented through parent education workshops, school curricula, and educational resources focused on character and moral development.