American Journal of Applied Psychology, 2022, Vol. 10, No. 1, 31-39 Available online at http://pubs.sciepub.com/ajap/10/1/5 Published by Science and Education Publishing DOI:10.12691/ajap-10-1-5 Sex and School Differences in Executive Function Performance of Zambian Public Preschoolers Gabriel Walubita 1,* , Beatrice Matafwali 1 , Tamara Chansa-Kabali 2 , Sylvia Mwanza-Kabaghe 1 , Gershom Chongwe 3 , Sophie Kasonde-Ng'andu 1 , Mubanga Mofu 1 , Janet Serenje 1 , Adriana Bus 4 1 Educational Psychology, Sociology and Special Education, University of Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia 2 Department of Psychology, University of Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia 3 Director and Chief Executive Officer at the Tropical Diseases Research Centre, Zambia 4 University of Stavanger, Norway *Corresponding author: Received September 17, 2022; Revised October 23, 2022; Accepted November 03, 2022 Abstract Despite a great deal of research on the relations between preschool executive functions (EF) and demographic variables such as age, sex and school variables (classroom organization and teacher behaviours including quality of educational instruction, planning, organization and teacher-learner relationships), not much is known about these associations in Zambian preschoolers. This study was aimed at examining the relations of executive functions to age, sex and school variables in 133 Zambian preschool learners enrolled in urban public preschools aged 5 to 8 years. A between-subjects quasi-experimental research design was utilised. Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-rank model showed sex and school differences were also observed to be significantly related to executive functions, no significant relationship was found for age. Key implications of the study for pre-primary policy, girl-child education (to discourage child marriage) and preschool teacher professional development in Zambia are discussed. Keywords: Zambian preschool learners, executive functions, sex differences, school variables Cite This Article: Gabriel Walubita, Beatrice Matafwali, Tamara Chansa-Kabali, Sylvia Mwanza-Kabaghe, Gershom Chongwe, Sophie Kasonde-Ng'andu, Mubanga Mofu, Janet Serenje, and Adriana Bus, “Sex and School Differences in Executive Function Performance of Zambian Public Preschoolers.” American Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 10, no. 1 (2022): 31-39. doi: 10.12691/ajap-10-1-5. 1. Introduction Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for the largest number of children who drop out of school due to child marriage and other factors [1,2,3] The number of children in sub- saharan Africa who fail to acquire basic reading and mathematics skills continues to remain high [4]. Out of 650 million primary school children, 250 million do not have reading and mathematics skills while one-third of all primary school children who have acquired some reading skills are unable to read a sentence at the end of their primary education [4]. One of the reasons for this poor performance in reading and mathematics is the lack of adequate executive functions (EF) skills [5,6,7]. Executive functions skills are a set of three advanced cognitive skills linked to the brain's prefrontal cortex that enable a child to engage in the following skills; (1) store, update and retrieve information while engaged in other attention- demanding tasks (working memory), (2) withhold inappropriate responses (inhibitory control) and (3) switch attention to different tasks in the environment (cognitive flexibility) [8,9]. These EF skills have been found to predict several child development skills such as reading [10], maths [11], school readiness [12], responsible adult behaviour [13], social skills [14], good parenting quality [15] and non-criminal behaviour [16]. Among many benefits, mastery of executive functions enables children to regulate their actions, thoughts and emotions, solve problems, make meaningful decisions, set goals and work towards goal attainment. Lack of EF skills manifests in maladjusted behaviour and inability to pay attention in class and lack of persistence on the highest pay-off tasks [17]. Factors that influence the development of EF skills include a conducive social-cultural context [18,19], school variables such as positive classroom organization and good teacher behaviours including positive teacher instruction, planning, organization and emotional support [12]. Maturation is another factor that contributes to the development of EF skills in children. Older children can perform better on cognitive tasks than their younger counterparts [20]. EFs develop rapidly during preschool years [21-26]. Sex has also been found to be associated with executive functions. Girls tend to perform better than boys on EF tasks in Western contexts [27-33]. However, the bulk of these investigations mainly focuses on high-