Socio-emotional well-being - nurtured through caring relationships and pro-social community experiences - enables children and caretakers to evolve into caring, non-violent, optimally-functioning citizens. 'Socially-constructed uncertainties' resulting from modernization as well as economic and social change, however, put a squeeze on social support network structures, and jeopardize the prospects for the constructive satisfaction of psychological needs. This text-analytical study explores how 'text communications' of socio-econonomic discourse producers such as the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank acknowledge or neglect to discuss the significance of socio-emotional well-being for human and social capital development. The study finds that socio-economic development discourse often 'backgrounds' discussions about social support structures necessary for nurturing 'optimal human functioning'. Psychologists are called upon to 'infect' socio-economic reasoning systems by advocating for the effective integration of socio-emotional well-being themes into 21st century socio-economic development thought.