The quality of experience of students with and without special educational needs in everyday life and when relating to peers

The aim of this paper is to investigate the quality of experience of students with and without SEN in everyday life in general and when relating to peers in particular: (1) How do they experience everyday school life vs. leisure time? (2) How much time per week do they spend with peers outside school? and (3) How do they experience those peer contacts? The data comprised 120 grade 8 (20%) and grade 9 (80%) students from the German-speaking part of Switzerland, with a mean age of 15.8 years (SD = 0.8 years). Of these students, 42 were diagnosed with SEN, of which 32 were taught in regular classes and 10 in special classes. Students were asked to report their current affective states on about 31 randomly selected occasions during one week, with a total of 3758 'snapshots' of their activities and their emotional experience in everyday life. Data were collected using the experience sampling method. Momentary affective states were measured by the PANA short-scales. The findings show, first, that students with and without SEN from regular classes interact as often with peers during leisure time, while students with SEN from special classes are presumably more likely to interact with family. Second, adolescents experience leisure activities more positively than instruction. Third, social interactions generally have a positive effect on the quality of experience. The quality of experience is especially good for teenagers when they are with peers - best with peers during leisure time. There are no differences between the student groups.