The concept of family literacy is firmly rooted in a substantial research base from several disciplines: adult literacy, emergent literacy, child development, and systems analysis. Research from these disciplines was reviewed to determine the benefits of family literacy. The results show that family literacy programs do work and that at least four groups benefit: children, parents, families as units, and the larger society. Highlights of these benefits include the following: (1) children attend school more regularly and are more likely to complete their education; (2) children's general knowledge, oral language development, reading achievement, decoding ability, comprehension, writing, mathematics and science achievement, social skills, self-esteem, and attitudes toward school improve, and they are healthier; (3) parents are far more likely to persist in family literacy programs than in other types of adult literacy programs; (4) parents' attitudes about education and their reading, writing, mathematics, science, and parenting knowledge improve; (6) parents enhance their employment status or job satisfaction; (7) families learn to value education, become more involved in schools (leading to higher achievement for children), become emotionally closer, and read more; and (8) society benefits because parents' persistence in literacy programs helps to break cycles of economic disadvantage, joblessness, and welfare dependency. (Contains 67 references) (KC)