<p>Individuals with chronic illnesses like type 1 diabetes (T1D) benefit when they perceive romantic partners engaging in positive (helpful) rather than negative (unhelpful) dyadic coping. The role that self-regulation abilities such as emotional control play in dyadic coping, however, are not well understood, despite literature demonstrating that social regulation (e.g., marital satisfaction) is associated with dyadic coping. We examine whether problems in emotional control relate to perceptions of partner’s positive and negative dyadic coping and observed interactions of couples, controlling for relationship satisfaction in a cross-sectional study. This secondary analysis involved 199 couples (ages 25–75, M length of relationship = 19.36&#xa0;years) in which one person had T1D. Measures included persons with diabetes (PWD) report of: their problems in emotional control as assessed by the BRIEF, their reports of partners’ positive and negative dyadic coping, and relationship satisfaction. Couples completed an interaction task, with interactions coded in terms of positive and negative dyadic coping and support exchanges. Problems in emotional control were associated with PWD perceiving partners as engaging in more negative dyadic coping (not positive dyadic coping) when relationship satisfaction was controlled. Greater problems with emotional control were associated with observational data indicating PWD displayed more avoidant dyadic coping and were more rejecting of social support. Problems in emotional control were not associated with other observed positive or negative dyadic coping of patients or partners. These results underscore the need to examine self-regulation abilities that individuals with chronic illness bring to the dyad that may relate to their perceptions of and interactions involving dyadic coping.</p>