The prevailing issues in the development of family literacy were reviewed, and assumptions about families, family support, and learning upon which the concept is being developed were examined. A total of 173 studies on the following topics were reviewed: parent-child relationships and reading, parent-child early reading, parent/family beliefs and socialization, family and intergenerational literacy, family-school relationships, family and parent education, and contextual/cultural issues. It was concluded that researchers concerned with the conceptual considerations in developing a framework for the family literacy field focus their attention on the following questions: (1) what constitutes literacy support to families with varied cultural social, and political histories and (2) how is the concept of family support defined and interpreted by literacy specialists with vastly different notions about the purposes of literacy within families and about who decides what those purposes should be. It was recommended that family literacy learning be conceptualized as a lifelong activity that revolves around the family unit and that integrates cultural, ethnic, and social contexts for learning and principles of intergenerational learning into all instruction and planning activities. (The bibliography lists 116 references. Appended is a table summarizing the seven literature categories reviewed.) (MN)