An Eriksonian Perspective on Physical Punishment and Its Impacts on Mental Health

Joan E. Durrant, PhD, is a Child-Clinical Psychologist and Professor of Community Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba. Her research focuses on physical punishment from a multidisciplinary and international perspective. She has published extensively on the psychological, cultural and legal dimensions of physical punishment. She is the co-editor of Global Pathways to Abolishing Physical Punishment: Realizing Children’s Rights (Routledge) and Eliminating Corporal Punishment: The Way Forward to Constructive Child Discipline (UNESCO). She is the creator of Positive Discipline in Everyday Parenting (Save the Children), a developmentally- and rights-based approach to discipline, and coauthor of the Canadian Joint Statement on Physical Punishment of Children and Youth. She is the recipient of many awards for her work, including the Children’s Rights Supporter Award (Canadian Coalition for Children’s Rights), Human Rights Commitment Award (Manitoba Human Rights Commission), Humanitarian of the Year Award (Canadian Red Cross), and Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.
CONTACT Joan E. Durrant Joan.Durrant@umanitoba.ca Department of Community Health Sciences, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3T 2N2 Canada

R. Ensom, MSW, RSW, Ron Ensom, as a professional and volunteer, has pursued a life-long interest in children and families, child poverty, family violence, and child maltreatment. His work spans child welfare, resolving service barriers for hard-to-serve children, pediatric hospital and community management of child abuse and neglect, research, consultation and training, clinical private practice, advocacy, and provision of professional opinions in contentious child maltreatment cases. He has written a book on child sexual abuse, collaborated in developing the Canadian Joint Statement on Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) and an educational video on SBS/AHT, and coauthored the Canadian Joint Statement on Physical Punishment of Children and Youth. He has a life-long involvement with a camp and community-based skill development program for children disadvantaged by poverty. Among the awards he has received for his work and leadership are the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, Canadian Institute of Child Health’s Health Promotion & Innovation Award of Excellence, and Canada Volunteer Award Certificate of Merit.