Vadricka Etienne is a Sociology doctoral student at the City University of New York Graduate Center. Her research interests lies at the intersection of race/ethnicity, immigration, and family. More specifically, her work examines how second generation Haitian Americans culturally socialize their children, and how this process of socialization is a reflection of their ethnic lived experience and chosen ethnic identity within a new roles as parents. As a recent National Science Foundation graduate research fellowship recipient, her current project examines the role of long-term romantic relationships, such as marriage, in ethnic identity development and culture heritage maintenance among adult children of immigrants.