To their minds it is still something like an obligation and this may be attributed to the pressure their parents and teachers used to put on them.

something 在这里指代"某种事物"，用于表示不具体说明的事物。 like 在这里是介词，意思是"像...一样"，表示相似性或比喻关系。 something like 这个短语的意思是"类似于..."，用来表示某种不精确的相似或近似关系。