Penelope Trickett, the David Lawrence Stein/Violet Goldberg Sachs Professor of Mental Health at the USC School of Social Work, has been awarded an Advancing Scholarship in the Humanities and Social Sciences grant from the USC Provost's Office for more than $20,000. The prize will be used to further Trickett's current research study, "From Nature vs. Nurture to Nature x Nurture: Investigating How Genes Interact with Child Abuse and Neglect."

The title of the research references arguments that have persisted over decades regarding whether people are simply born with particular genes which determine their behavior or if individuals' environments affect their behavior. Trickett and Carol Prescott, USC psychology professor and Trickett's collaborative research partner, aim to determine whether a combination of genes and environmental factors determine individuals' behavior. Prescott's research focuses primarily on the genetic factors that play a role in mental health and substance abuse problems.

"Today there's a lot of progress being made on how patterns of genes affect many things, including mental health," Trickett said. "We're now in a position to start examining how the environment that children grow up in – which may include situations of child abuse and/or neglect – interacts with the genes they were born with and how it produces mental health problems."

Trickett explains that she and Prescott are choosing to closely examine the environmental approach to learn more about why some children who are exposed to abusive upbringings take on these traits and why some are not affected. Through their research, Trickett and Prescott would like to be able to better predict what factors play a part in a child's development of abusive traits while simultaneously preventing adverse outcomes for these adolescents.

For the past 25 years, Trickett has been examining the environmental factors of child abuse and neglect, focusing particularly on physical and sexual abuse and neglect within familial circles. Through her long-term studies of a group of adolescent girls who experienced familial abuse, she has been able to observe the immediate impact of abuse on these individuals from childhood into their 30s. In further research, Trickett also followed a sexually abused young girl into adulthood.

"We have thoroughly reviewed the literature [regarding child abuse and neglect] to date and have identified that six different published studies have found different genes associated with depression, aggression and anti-social behavior," Trickett said.

Trickett says she and Prescott not only want to conduct a systematic review of the literature, but the research team also wants to get a sense of the direction in which environmental and genetic research in relationship to child abuse and neglect now stands. The pair plans to later propose a new research study to, perhaps, the National Institutes of Health regarding a new sample of abused adolescents.

"The cutting-edge research will also determine the feasibility of using information in genes to take biological measures of the sample of abused children," Trickett said.

USC Provost C. L. Max Nikias announced the Advancing Scholarship in the Humanities and Social Sciences grant program to encourage scholarship in the arts, humanities and social sciences. Overall, 41 proposals were selected from more than 100 submitted grant proposals. Final selections included 12 university departments and faculty members from 12 USC schools. The grants, ranging from $5,000-$25,000, were awarded to 21 faculty members in the arts and humanities discipline and 20 faculty members within the social sciences discipline.

The Advancing Scholarship in the Humanities and Social Sciences grant is designed to support USC faculty in many areas, including salary support for graduate student resident advisors; additional student wages; applicant salaries; travel; survey and ethnographic research; workshops and consultations; purchase and collection of archival materials and manuscript preparation.