This study examines the dual-edged impact of childcare responsibilities on the work engagement of working mothers by exploring both the negative and positive pathways through family-to-work conflict (FWC) and family-to-work enrichment (FWE). Drawing on Conservation of Resources (COR) theory and the Work-Home Resources (W-HR) model, we investigate how childcare responsibilities, as a contextual demand, simultaneously act as a hindrance and challenge demand, influencing work engagement through FWC and FWE. Additionally, we explore the moderating roles of perceived supervisor support and employee resilience, proposing that these resources buffer the adverse effects of FWC while amplifying the positive effects of FWE. Based on a sample of a time-lagged data from working mothers in Turkey, our findings reveal that childcare responsibilities are positively associated with FWC and negatively associated with FWE, both of which mediate their impact on work engagement. Importantly, supervisor support and employee resilience moderated these effects. In other words, the negative indirect relationship between childcare responsibilities and work engagement via FWC diminished as resilience increased, becoming non-significant at higher levels of resilience. Similarly, the adverse effect of FWC on work engagement was mitigated among working mothers who perceived high levels of supervisor support. These results emphasize the buffering role of resilience and supervisor support in reducing the resource-depleting effects of FWC, highlighting their importance in fostering engagement among working mothers.
