Dr. Trucco (she/her/hers) is the director of the Research on Adolescent and Child Health (ReACH) Lab, which is committed to identifying biological, social, and personality factors that lead to alcohol, e-cigarette, and drug use among adolescents and young adults. Dr. Trucco's program of research is focused on understanding early risk and protective factors that lead to adolescent delinquency and substance use. Informed by developmental theory, her work examines how factors such as early childhood stressors, personality, biology, parenting, and peers impact risk for substance use across childhood into young adulthood. Ultimately, the goal of this line of research is to improve substance use prevention programming for children and teens. Dr. Trucco's research is currently funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD).
research interests
Etiology of adolescent substance use; Adolescence; Biological, social, and personality characteristics impacting the development of adolescent problem behavior; Developmental social ecological models