Video Intervention/Prevention Assessment, created by Dr. Michael Rich, Director of CMCH, “could be used not only to monitor the lives of kids with chronic illnesses such as sickle-cell disease, diabetes, and HIV, but also to achieve “complex medical interventions” in cases that involve substance abuse, teen pregnancy, and violence in the home. It could bring the child’s experience to center stage.”

“The largest sampling of music video content to date reveals a disturbing amount of violence, as well as unrealistic views of racial and sexual relationships, according to researchers at the Harvard Medical School.”

Dr. Michael Rich who performed the study says “Our findings raise concern for the effect of violent portrayals in music videos on adolescents’ expectations about their own safety and the way they view people of another gender or race.”

Research in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that too many kids are on the couch instead of playing outside — 25% of children watch 4 or more hours of TV per day.

The study found that numbers for minority children were even higher. Dr. Michael Rich suggests this may be due to worried parents keeping their children indoors, rather than outside in unsafe neighborhoods, “so kids who would even ten years ago have gone out and played basketball down at the corner playground are not.”

The study also showed that teen girls became more sedentary as they got older. Dr. Rich commented “in the mid to late teens, peer acceptance for boys is predicated on athletic prowess, while for girls, the emphasis is on being lady-like.”