Supervision in tribal and state child welfare agencies: professionalization, responsibilities, training needs, and satisfaction.

Although tribal child welfare and family services have expanded substantially since the enactment of the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, little is known about tribal child welfare services or their personnel. This exploratory study compared supervisors from 11 tribal child welfare agencies and one state child welfare agency. Tribal and state supervisors reported similar levels of supervisory professionalization and satisfaction, but they differed in their ethnicity, their supervisory tasks, and their training needs. The results were interpreted from a systems perspective of ethnic-sensitive agency practice.