Abstract: Objective: To investigate the potential categories and influencing factors of social avoidance and distress in breast cancer patients. Methods: Using convenience sampling method to select 169 cases of breast cancer patients from two tertiary grade A hospitals in Hunan province. The general data questionnaire, Social Avoidance and Distress Scale, Spiritual Attitude and Involvement List, Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-2nd Edition, and Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire were used in this study. Latent Profile Analysis was used to analyze the classification of breast cancer patients' social avoidance and distress. A robust three-step polynomial Logistic regression analysis was used to explore the influencing factors of social avoidance and distress in breast cancer patients. Results: The results of Latent Profile Analysis supported two potential models, which were defined as "mild avoidance and distress type" (59.17%) and "severe avoidance and distress type" (40.83%). Age, education background, employment status, residence, family per capita monthly income, self-care status, knowledge of disease, payment method of medical expenses, spiritual level and psychological flexibility had predictive effects on the potential profile classification of social avoidance and distress in breast cancer patients. Conclusion: There are two potential categories of social avoidance and distress in breast cancer patients, and the levels of social avoidance and distress in breast cancer patients of different categories have individual differences, which suggesting that medical practitioners should take targeted psychological intervention measures to promote the recovery of social function in breast cancer patients.

Key words: breast cancer; social avoidance and distress; Latent Profile Analysis; mental flexibility