Bibliography
Johnson, David, and Roger Johnson. Learning Together and Alone:
Cooperative, Competitive, and Individualistic Learning, 4th edi-
tion. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1994.
Kagan, Spencer. Cooperative Learning. Boston: Charlesbridge,
1995.
Sharan, Yael, and Shlomo Sharan. Expanding Cooperative Learning
through Group Investigation. New York: Teachers College
Press, 1992.
Slavin, Robert. Cooperative Learning: Theory, Research, and Practice,
2nd edition. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1995.
Webb, Noreen, and Annemarie Palincsar. ‘‘Group Processes in the
Classroom.’’ In David Berliner and Robert Calfee eds., Hand-
book of Educational Psychology. New York: Simon and Schuster-
Macmillan, 1996.
Robert E. Slavin
CO-PARENTING
Co-parenting includes the ways parents support or
undermine their partner’s parenting and how parents
manage their relationship in the presence of their
children, whether in intact or divorced families. The
study of co-parenting addresses the question of how
interactions between family members affect children’s
development. Focus is on the mutual investment
and engagement of parents in child rearing. Co-
parenting is somewhat, but not completely, influ-
enced by the quality of the parents’ relationship with
each other. Through methods including observations
of family interactions and parental self-report, re-
searchers study different aspects of co-parenting,
including hostility-competition; warmth between
parents, responsiveness, and cooperation; communi-
cation, conflict, help, and support. Research dem-
onstrates that co-parenting affects children’s develop-
ment during the toddler, preschool, middle child-
hood, and adolescent years. For example, parents’
hostility and competition around child rearing when
children are infants is related to children’s aggression
in preschool. Researchers are studying how co-
parenting during children’s early years sets up pat-
terns of family interactions that affect children’s social
and emotional functioning over time.
See also: PARENTING; WORKING FAMILIES
Bibliography
Brody, Gene, Zolinda Stoneman, Trellis Smith, and Nicole Mor-
gan Gibson. ‘‘Sibling Relationships in Rural African-
American Families.’’ Journal of Marriage and the Family 61
(1999):1046–1057.
McHale, James, and Jeffrey Rasumussen. ‘‘Coparental and Family
Group-Level Dynamics during Infancy: Early Family Precur-
sors of Child and Family Functioning during Preschool.’’ De-
velopment and Psychopathology 10 (1998):39–59.
McHale, James, and P. A. Cowan, eds. Understanding How Family-
Level Dynamics Affect Children’s Development: Studies of Two-
Parent Families. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1996.
Amy R. Susman-StillmanCORPORAL PUNISHMENT
Corporal punishment is the application of physical
force to the body for the purposes of discipline. Cor-
poral punishment of children, especially in schools,
is declining in acceptability and use. Advocates, such
as the Family Research Council, make careful distinc-
tions between physical punishment and physical vio-
lence or abuse, and often cite the Bible in support of
corporal punishment. Recommended forms of corpo-
ral punishment include spanking of the buttocks with
the open hand and light slaps to the hand of the child.
Opponents of corporal punishment cite studies indi-
cating that corporal punishment can cause physical
harm, is ineffective for changing behavior, leads to
abuse, and may lower the intelligence of the child.
Changing social attitudes toward corporal punish-
ment have led to the prosecution of some parents
and lawsuits against school personnel using corporal
punishment. Many groups, including the American
Academy of Pediatrics, recommend against corporal
punishment and advocate its elimination from
schools.See also: DISCIPLINEBibliography
‘‘Corporal Punishment in Schools (RE9754).’’ In the American
Academy of Pediatrics [web site]. Elk Grove Village, Illinois,- Available from http://www.aap.org/policy/re9754.html;
INTERNET.
Robinson, B. A. ‘‘Child Corporal Punishment: Spanking.’’ In the
Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance [web site]. Kings-
ton, Ontario, 2000. Available from http://www.
religioustolerance.org/spanking.htm; INTERNET.
Brian Newberry
COURT APPOINTED SPECIAL
ADVOCATE ASSOCIATE PROGRAM
The Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) pro-
gram is a nationwide program that trains adults to be
advocates for children who are in the judicial system.
After a training period, which includes an overview of
topics such as juvenile law, child development, and
social work, adults interact with their children in and
out of court and work with the children to ensure that
their rights are being protected and their needs are
being met. CASA started through the actions of a Se-
attle judge who conceived the idea of using trained100 CO-PARENTING