Problems. Given the opinion-policy linkage, it is important to measure the welfare attitudes of the American public accurately and examine whether this construct is related to people’s beliefs in the American Dream given its central role in American belief system. Methods. Data were available from 1,378 Americans in the General Social Survey 2016, who consisted of a nationally representative sample of the US population. Confirmatory factor analysis, latent class analysis, factor mixture modeling analysis, and latent class regression analysis were performed based on responses to the International Welfare Attitudes Scale. Results. Based on model fit statistics, this study found that the items were optimally explained by three latent classes. It was also found that people’s beliefs in the American Dream were not associated with their membership of latent classes as welfare supporters. Conclusions. The latent structure of the instrument under study is not categorical-dimensional but optimally categorical. Additional research is needed to further examine this structure, especially longitudinally.